Does hospital location matter? Association of neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage with hospital quality in US metropolitan settings

An aspect of a hospital's location, such as its degree of socioeconomic disadvantage, could potentially affect quality ratings of the hospital; yet, few studies have granularly explored this relationship in United States (US) metropolitan areas characterized by a wide breadth of socioeconomic disparities across neighborhoods. An understanding of the effect of neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage on hospital quality of care is infor-mative for targeting resources in poor neighborhoods. We assessed the association of neighborhood socioeco-nomic disadvantage with hospital quality of care across several areas of quality (including mortality, readmission, safety, patient experience, effectiveness of care, summary and overall star rating) in US metro-politan areas. Hospitals in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods, compared to hospitals in the least disad-vantaged neighborhoods, had worse mortality scores, readmission scores, safety of care scores, patient experience of care scores, effectiveness of care scores, summary scores and overall star rating. Timeliness of care and efficient use of imaging scores were not strongly associated with neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage; although, future studies are needed to validate this finding. Policymakers could target innovative strategies for improving neighborhood socioeconomic conditions in more disadvantaged areas, as this may improve hospital quality.

Automated summary

This study assessed the association between neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and hospital quality of care in US metropolitan areas. The findings revealed that hospitals in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods had worse quality scores in various aspects. However, the association between timeliness of care and efficient use of imaging scores with neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage was weak.