Fact File

Substantial variation exists across hospitals on the use of many clinical services including pharmacy and supply. For example, some hospitals may use drug treatment more aggressively or use more expensive drugs than other hospitals, even though the types of patients they treat are very similar. And while one might expect that the more one spends, the better the result, research from Thomson Reuters shows that top-performing hospitals actually spend less on pharmacy and supply, suggesting that the notion of reducing healthcare costs while improving quality is, indeed, attainable. Meanwhile, despite some recent dips, labor and nonlabor costs per discharge continue to increase.