Science / Medicine : Some Hospitals Raise AIDS Survival Rate

AIDS patients hospitalized with a life-threatening pneumonia are more likely to survive if they seek care at institutions with experience in treating the disease, researchers from the RAND Corp. and the UCLA Medical Center report in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

The study evaluated patients hospitalized between October, 1986, and October, 1987. It found that 221 Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia patients admitted to seven California hospitals with a “high level” of AIDS experience had an in-hospital mortality rate of 12%. By comparison, 36 patients admitted to eight California hospitals with less experience treating AIDS had an in-hospital death rate of 33%. The overall in-hospital death rate was 15.2%.

“It is likely that technology diffusion related to AIDS is not uniform and that hospitals with low AIDS familiarity are at a marked disadvantage in the treatment of patients with AIDS,” the report said.

Dr. Charles L. Bennett, the principal author of the study, cautioned that the results were “preliminary.” The researchers called for policy initiatives, such as the creation of regional AIDS centers or intensive educational efforts directed at facilities with a low level of experience with AIDS.