The compensation of CEOs at nonprofit U.S. hospitals may not be based on patient outcomes, the provision of care or benefit to the community. Instead, a JAMA Internal Medicine study published online Oct. 14 found that compensation may be more closely linked to technology and patient satisfaction.

Strategies to control rhythm and control rate in patients with atrial fibrillation and heart failure do not differ significantly in terms of costs, according to a study published in the October issue of the Canadian Journal of Cardiology. The total per-patient costs were approximately $70,581 USD for rhythm control and $76,404 USD for rate control.

Although there has been a push toward making data from clinical trials more widely available, a study published online Oct. 8 in PLOS Medicine found that unpublished clinical study reports (CSRs) provide more complete information related to patient outcomes than publicly available information.

Identifying patients with low-risk chest pain who can safely be discharged early may be possible using a new set of diagnostic procedures, leading to lower costs and better patient outcomes. A study published online Oct. 7 in JAMA: Internal Medicine found that an experimental strategy nearly doubled the amount of patients discharged from the emergency department to outpatient care within six hours.

Robot-assisted mitral valve repair surgery was no more costly than open surgery, once a hospital initiated process improvements. What’s more, patients who underwent robotic surgery had a shorter length of stay, especially after innovations in the hospital’s systems were in place.

There are a number of reasons why hospital prices throughout the U.S. are rising, and a study published online Oct. 1 in Health Management, Policy and Innovation found that most of them relate to cost of care increases. There is little evidence to suggest that market competition is behind the higher prices or that hospitals hike up prices because of lower reimbursement from insurance companies.

The Washington Post reviewed contingency plans filed by federal agencies that detailed employee furloughs and what aspects of their programs would remain functioning during the government shutdown. The list is organized by agency and will be updated as information becomes available.

In a study of more than 2.3 million Medicare patients who underwent surgery, researchers found that 17.3 percent of these patients visited an emergency department (ED) within 30 days of discharge. Patients who underwent PCI and CABG had the highest rates of post-discharge ED visits compared with patients who had other procedures.