“Dr. Forthman noted, ‘In order to provide reliable comparisons among hospitals, the study removed unusually difficult cases (i.e., outliers) and adjusted for differences in patient risk factors (i.e., clinical and demographic characteristics).'”
This is not fair to the highly-ranked hospitals. Many patients will travel from other countries to seek care at these institutions. The reason they have “unusually difficult” patients and cases is because they are some of the best hospitals in the world.
Otherwise, I often question the validity of the U.S. News and World Report rankings. I was recently working on an education study where I found no correlation whatsoever between the U.S. News ranking and the actually student success metrics.
Does Austerity Kill?
“Skeptics will point to structural differences between Greece and Iceland. Greece’s membership in the eurozone made currency devaluation impossible, and it had less political room to reject I.M.F. calls for austerity.”
That seems like a huge difference to me. Let’s also not forget that suicide rates are affected by many arbitrary things, like latitude – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12211887
I’m not saying the economy didn’t have something to do with it (it clearly did), but let’s not confuse austerity measures and fiscal responsibility with whatever the hell is going on in Greece, Italy, or Spain. There is nothing remotely financially responsible with how those three countries have been managed.
There are 17 hospitals on both lists. Notice they are the SAME 17 hospitals, just in a different order.
In other words, both organizations ranked all 6,000 U.S. hospitals, and both found the the top 1/3 of 1% is composed of the SAME hospitals.
Should I worry that Univ of Indiana ranks 16th on one list and 1st on another? In a universe of 17 hospitals – I might. In a universe of almost 6,000 licensed U.S. hospitals – absolutely not.
“Does austerity cause suicides?”
People in desperate situations have consistently shown to have greater propensity to commit suicide. Whether it causes suicides, I think the science still doesn’t quite understand what causes it.
I don’t know if austerity causes suicides, but I sure get depressed every time I open my credit card statement and realize I need to start living within my means!
True Mark, but I think neither does correlation imply a lack of causality.
“Correlation” being simply some observed degree of association between two variables. One variable may be dependent on the other, or it may not, or it may be covariate with many other factors (which is likely the case regarding government “austerity” and suicide).
“Does austerity cause suicides?”
-While it is terribly sad to see situations like this, I find it difficult to blame an austerity program. For me, it just doesn’t pass the smell test.
“Dr. Forthman noted, ‘In order to provide reliable comparisons among hospitals, the study removed unusually difficult cases (i.e., outliers) and adjusted for differences in patient risk factors (i.e., clinical and demographic characteristics).'”
This is not fair to the highly-ranked hospitals. Many patients will travel from other countries to seek care at these institutions. The reason they have “unusually difficult” patients and cases is because they are some of the best hospitals in the world.
Otherwise, I often question the validity of the U.S. News and World Report rankings. I was recently working on an education study where I found no correlation whatsoever between the U.S. News ranking and the actually student success metrics.
Does Austerity Kill?
“Skeptics will point to structural differences between Greece and Iceland. Greece’s membership in the eurozone made currency devaluation impossible, and it had less political room to reject I.M.F. calls for austerity.”
That seems like a huge difference to me. Let’s also not forget that suicide rates are affected by many arbitrary things, like latitude – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12211887
I’m not saying the economy didn’t have something to do with it (it clearly did), but let’s not confuse austerity measures and fiscal responsibility with whatever the hell is going on in Greece, Italy, or Spain. There is nothing remotely financially responsible with how those three countries have been managed.
I don’t have the time for another IRS form – it took me 6 hours to fill these out!
Comparion vs US News Hospital Rankings
There are 17 hospitals on both lists. Notice they are the SAME 17 hospitals, just in a different order.
In other words, both organizations ranked all 6,000 U.S. hospitals, and both found the the top 1/3 of 1% is composed of the SAME hospitals.
Should I worry that Univ of Indiana ranks 16th on one list and 1st on another? In a universe of 17 hospitals – I might. In a universe of almost 6,000 licensed U.S. hospitals – absolutely not.
“Does austerity cause suicides?”
People in desperate situations have consistently shown to have greater propensity to commit suicide. Whether it causes suicides, I think the science still doesn’t quite understand what causes it.
“Does austerity cause suicides?”
Yes, it does. People want their money and services or rather not live anymore…
Study challenges U.S. News ranking of U.S. hospitals
The current methodology uses bad proxies.
Does austerity cause suicides?
I don’t know if austerity causes suicides, but I sure get depressed every time I open my credit card statement and realize I need to start living within my means!
Does austerity cause suicides?
CORRELATION DOESN’T IMPLY CAUSALITY.
True Mark, but I think neither does correlation imply a lack of causality.
“Correlation” being simply some observed degree of association between two variables. One variable may be dependent on the other, or it may not, or it may be covariate with many other factors (which is likely the case regarding government “austerity” and suicide).