Racial/ethnic disparities in the utilization of high-technology hospitals.

Introduction: Hospitals with high-technology services may have better outcomes. However, access to high-technology hospitals might not be uniform across racial/ethnic groups. This study examined if racial/ethnic minorities, compared to whites, are less likely to utilize hospitals that have the availability of technology services and infrastructure items such as computed tomography, positron emission tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, diagnostics radiation facility, and a level 1 trauma unit.

Methods: Data were obtained from the 2003 Healthcare Cost & Utilization Project's Nationwide Inpatient Sample and the 2003 American Hospital Association's annual survey data. The sample consisted of 3381 324 patients admitted to and discharged from 368 hospitals in 18 states in the United States.

Results: Logistic regression results suggest that Hispanic patients are less likely than whites to utilize high-technology hospitals when controlling for other factors (odds ratio[OR], 0.47; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.28-0.79).

Conclusions: Our study adds empirical evidence that significant gaps persist in access to care between minorities and whites. Particularly, access to high-technology hospitals for Hispanics appears to be a major problem.