For years the debate has raged:  Does conversion of a nonprofit hospital to for-profit status result in a decline in clinical quality?  An improvement?  More efficient operations?  A decrease in the volume of indigent and minority patients?

Researchers at Harvard decided to stop wondering and look at the matter scientifically.  Their study appears in the current issue of JAMA.  The results?  Conversion does improve financial margins.  It doesn’t improve or worsen clinical quality.  And there’s no decrease in the volume of indigent or minority patients.

The for-profit hospital trade group, Federation of American Hospitals, hailed the study as proof that for-profits can operate more efficiently, with no decline in clinical quality or community accessibility.

The study focused on conversions to for-profit status over the 2003-10 period, in each case excluding the year of a hospital’s conversion.  A sample of 237 converting hospitals was compared to 631 control hospitals.

The article is “Association Between Hospital Conversions to For-Profit Status and Clinical and Economic Outcomes.”