Health Care Policy Decisions Research Articles

A journey towards a theology of health economics and healthcare funding

Policy decisions in healthcare inherently involve value choices, but these are rarely made explicit. As a health economist participating in policy debates, I have become increasingly concerned about the profession’s implicit values and began to explore – through a PhD in theology – what a theologically informed basis for health economics, and healthcare funding in particular, might comprise. The result is articulation of a set of principles derived from the parable of the ‘Good’ Samaritan – compassion, social justice and stewardship.

Unveiling the true costs and societal impacts of moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis in Europe.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic, auto-immune condition that imposes a high burden on individuals, society, and the healthcare system. Approximately 4.4% of adults and up to 18.6% of children/adolescents have AD in Europe, with 20% of all cases accounting for moderate-to-severe forms. This form of the condition in adults results in annual societal costs across Europe of an estimated €30 billion; €15.2 billion related to missed workdays or reduced work productivity, €10.1 billion related to direct medical costs and €4.7 billion related to personal expenditure of patients/families. AD can also substantially impact physical, emotional, and social quality-of-life. Several studies have shown the debilitating itch-scratch cycle is the main cause of the multifaceted burden, as it causes substantial sleep deprivation and stigmatisation due to the physical appearance of the skin, and confidence issues. These factors lead to psychosocial issues and can cumulate over time and prohibit patients reaching their 'full life potential'. Despite this, many patients with the condition are undertreated, resulting in uncontrolled symptoms and a further strain placed on patients, society, and the economy. The authors of this White Paper comprise the European Atopic Dermatitis Working Group, which is a network of international specialists with expertise in dermatology and healthcare policy decisions. Their programme of action is focused on harnessing their expertise to build consensus, advance research, share knowledge, and ultimately seek to improve AD care outcomes through achieving long-term symptom control. This White Paper presents a systematic evaluation of the overall financial and humanistic burden of moderate-to-severe AD and the current challenges that exist with AD care. It introduces recommendations for how, collaboratively, key stakeholders and policy makers can support improvements in AD management to achieve better disease control, thus reducing the costs and associated burden placed on individuals, society, and the economy.

Use of laboratory data for illicit drug use surveillance and identification of socioeconomic risk factors

BackgroundDrug overdose is the leading cause of death among people 25–44 years of age in the United States. Existing drug surveillance methods are important for prevention and directing treatment, but are limited by delayed reporting and lack of geographic granularity. MethodsLaboratory urine drug screen and complete metabolic panel data from patients presenting to the emergency department was used to observe long-term and short-term temporal and geospatial changes at the zip code-level in St. Louis. Multivariate linear regression was performed to investigate associations between zip code-level socioeconomic factors and drug screening positivity rates. ResultsAn increase in the fentanyl positive drug screens was seen during the initial COVID-19 shutdown period in the spring of 2020. A decrease in cocaine positivity was seen in the fall and winter of 2020, with a return to baseline coinciding with the second major COVID-19 shutdown in the summer of 2021. These changes appeared to be independent of changes in emergency department utilization as measured by complete metabolic panels ordered. Significant short-term changes in fentanyl and cocaine positivity rates between specific time periods were able to be localized to individual zip codes. Zip code-level multivariate analysis demonstrated independent associations between socioeconomic/demographic factors and fentanyl/cocaine positivity rates as determined by laboratory drug screening data. ConclusionsAnalyzing clinical laboratory drug screening data can enable a more temporally and geographically granular view of population-level drug use surveillance. Additionally, laboratory data can be utilized to find population-level socioeconomic associations with illicit drug use, presenting a potential avenue for the use of this data to guide public health and healthcare policy decisions.

Spatial analysis of factors impacting lower limb major amputation rates in Hungary: Is geography partially destiny?

Background: Lower limb major amputations represent a substantial public health burden in Hungary, where previous research revealed markedly high rates with significant spatial variations. Therefore, we aimed to assess to what extent healthcare and socio-economic factors in the local environment explain the regional disparity. Patients and methods: In a retrospective cohort analysis, based on the healthcare administrative data of the Hungarian population, lower limb major amputations were identified from 1st of January 2017 to 31st of December 2019. The permanent residence of the amputees on the local administrative level (197 geographic units) was used to identify potential healthcare (outpatient care, revascularisation activity) and socio-economic (educational attainment, local infrastructure and services, income and employment) determinants of amputations. Spatial effects were modelled using the spatial Durbin error regression model. Results: 10,209 patients underwent 11,649 lower limb major amputations in the observational period. In our spatial analysis, outpatient care was not associated with local amputation rates. However, revascularisation activity in a geographic unit entailed an increased rate of amputations, while revascularisations in the neighbouring areas were associated with a lower rate of amputations, resulting in an overall neutral effect (β=-0.002, 95% CI: -0.05 - 0.04, p=0.96). The local socio-economic environment had a significant direct inverse association with amputations (β=-7.45, 95% CI: -10.50 - -4.42, p<0.0001) . Our spatial model showed better performance than the traditional statistical modelling (ordinary least squares regression), explaining 37% of the variation in amputations rates. Conclusions: Regional environmental factors explain a substantial portion of spatial disparities in amputation practice. While the socio-economic environment shows a significant inverse relationship with the regional amputation rates, the impact of the local healthcare-related factors (outpatient care, revascularisation activity) is not straightforward. Unravelling the impact of the location on amputation practice requires complex spatial modelling, which may guide efficient healthcare policy decisions.

The Audiologist's Role in Advocacy.

Healthcare policy decisions that affect the day-to-day work of an audiologist and his/her ability to best serve our patients occur every day. It is imperative that every professional participate in advocacy efforts; however, many audiologists are unfamiliar with current advocacy initiatives, how to participate, or how critical one phone call, email, or meeting could be in the legislative process.

Inflation-Adjusted Medicare Reimbursement Has Decreased for Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Procedures: Analysis From 2000 to 2020.

Background:Decreases in Medicare reimbursement have been noted among many medical specialties. An in-depth analysis of the subspecialty of orthopaedic sports medicine is needed to determine changes in Medicare reimbursement in this field.Purpose/Hypothesis:The purpose was to elucidate the trends in inflation-adjusted Medicare reimbursement for orthopaedic sports medicine procedures between 2000 and 2020. It was hypothesized that Medicare reimbursement decreased substantially during the study period.Study Design:Economic decision and analysis; Level of evidence, 4.Methods:The Physician Fee Schedule Look-up Tool was used to extract Medicare reimbursement information between 2000 and 2020 for 67 procedures related to orthopaedic sports medicine. These values were adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Price Index. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) was calculated to measure the annual rate of change, and descriptive analyses were performed using the Student t test.Results:Between 2000 and 2020, inflation-adjusted Medicare reimbursement for the 67 included procedures decreased by an average of 33% (CAGR = –2.2%; R 2 = 0.78). Reimbursement decreased for procedures related to the shoulder and elbow by 34% (CAGR = –2.3%; R 2 = 0.80), for hip-related procedures by 23% (CAGR = –1.4%; R 2 = 0.77), for knee-related procedures by 31% (CAGR = –2.0%; R 2 = 0.81), and for procedures relating to the foot and ankle by 38% (CAGR = –2.5%; R 2 = 0.79).Conclusion:Study findings indicated that inflation-adjusted Medicare reimbursement decreased substantially between 2000 and 2020 for orthopaedic sports medicine procedures, ranging from a 23% decrease for hip-related procedures to a 38% decrease for foot and ankle–related procedures. The results of this study could be used to provide further context for health care policy decisions and help ensure sustainable financial environments for orthopaedic sports medicine surgeon.

“My problems aren't severe enough to seek help”: Stress levels and use of mental health supports by Canadian hospital employees during the COVID-19 pandemic

Due to the unique set of stressors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers in acute care settings may be facing elevated rates of mental health symptomatology. The purpose of this study was to assess levels of depression, anxiety, and stress in a sample of healthcare employees working in hospitals and their use of formal and informal mental health supports. Data was gathered over a three-week period in December 2020 as COVID cases began to rise sharply in Ontario, Canada. Results from an online survey of 650 healthcare employees suggested that overall levels of depression, anxiety, and stress were mild. However, a significant minority of participants reported severe or extremely severe levels of depression (14.4%), anxiety (21.8%), and stress (13.5%). Levels of distress were higher among women, younger participants, those who did not work directly with COVID+ patients, and those who were redeployed. Use of formal mental health supports (e.g., Employee Assistance Plans, teletherapy) was very low (<10%), with the most frequently-reported reason for not using supports being “problems not severe enough to require this service”. Implications are considered for healthcare policy decisions as hospital systems attempt to address the mental health needs of their employees.

Healthcare Federalism in an Age of Nation-to-Nation Interaction

Primary provincial responsibility over healthcare in Canada has consistently produced sub-optimal results, but any increased federal role in healthcare faces familiar hurdles. Attempts to optimize the system by shifting at least some responsibilities to the federal government are undermined by a lack of clarity on the constitutionally acceptable and morally optimal contours of a central (if not primary) federal responsibility. Resolving this apparent dilemma is crucial if we are to achieve enhanced healthcare performance and healthcare justice in Canada. Yet even an increased federal role capable of surmounting those hurdles faces another, often-overlooked problem: a case can be made that the recognition of sub-state nations (e.g., the Québécois and Indigenous nations) in Canada would require the admission of their claims to greater authority over healthcare. This study examines this potential additional obstacle by setting out the options for an increased federal role in healthcare and how they interact with legitimate sub-state nationalist claims. It ultimately demonstrates that there is no ideal option for balancing those competing values. Even the best option – a national healthcare strategy – raises a number of moral issues. Yet this need not lead to an impasse. An explanation of the relevant moral concerns and analysis of the relevant policy options instead demonstrates the need to make trade-offs between values in determining who should make healthcare policy decisions in a state. The provision of examples of how one can approach the weighing of values to arrive the least bad option in this sphere should be valuable for Canadians and scholars working in this domain in other multinational states.

Sociodemographic Factors Are Associated with Patient-Reported Outcome Measure Completion in Orthopaedic Surgery

Background:Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and, specifically, the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS), are increasingly utilized for clinical research, clinical care, and health-care policy. However, completion of these outcome measures can be inconsistent and challenging. We hypothesized that sociodemographic variables are associated with the completion of PROM questionnaires. The purposes of the present study were to calculate the completion rate of assigned PROM forms and to identify sociodemographic and other variables associated with completion to help guide improved collection efforts.Methods:All new orthopaedic patients at a single academic medical center were identified from 2016 to 2020. On the basis of subspecialty and presenting condition, patients were assigned certain PROMIS forms and legacy PROMs. Demographic and clinical information was abstracted from the electronic medical record. Bivariate analyses were performed to compare characteristics among those who completed assigned PROMs and those who did not. A multivariable logistic regression model was created to determine which variables were associated with successful completion of assigned PROMs.Results:Of the 219,891 new patients, 88,052 (40%) completed all assigned PROMs. Patients who did not activate their internet-based patient portal had a 62% increased likelihood of not completing assigned PROMs (odds ratio [OR], 1.62; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.58 to 1.66; p < 0.001). Non-English-speaking patients had a 90% (OR, 1.90; 95% CI, 1.82 to 2.00; p < 0.001) increased likelihood of not completing assigned PROMs at presentation. Older patients (≥65 years of age) and patients of Black race had a 23% (OR, 1.23; 95% CI, 1.19 to 1.27; p < 0.001) and 24% (OR, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.19 to 1.30; p < 0.001) increased likelihood of not completing assigned PROMs, respectively.Conclusions:The rate of completion of PROMs varies according to sociodemographic variables. This variability could bias clinical outcomes research in orthopaedic surgery. The present study highlights the need to uniformly increase completion rates so that outcomes research incorporates truly representative cohorts of patients treated. Furthermore, the use of these PROMs to guide health-care policy decisions necessitates a representative patient distribution to avoid bias in the health-care system.Level of Evidence:Prognostic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

Hospitalization for Chemotherapy Toxicities (Chemotoxicities) during Treatment of Pediatric Hematologic Malignancies

Background: The projected 5y survival rates for pediatric hematologic malignancies exceed 85% (SEER statistics, 2017), in large part due to risk-stratified intensive multi-agent therapeutic approaches. However, these regimens result in chemotoxicity, often requiring hospitalization. However, the burden of chemotoxicity-related hospitalizations in children with hematologic malignancies remains understudied.Methods: Using an administrative claims database (Truven Marketscan ®), we describe chemotoxicity-related hospitalizations within the first 12 mo from first claim of chemotherapy in children with hematologic malignancies who were <21y at diagnosis. Eligibility included (i) incident acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL; ICD-10-CM code: C91), acute myeloid leukemia (AML; C92), Hodgkin lymphoma (HL; C81) or non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL; C83.0, C83.3, C83.5, C83.7, C84.4, C85) diagnosed between 2011 and 2018; and (ii) continued insurance coverage 30d prior to and 365d after cancer diagnosis. Chemotoxicities (identified using ICD-9 and -10 codes) were grouped into organ systems (hematologic, infectious, gastrointestinal, renal, allergic, pulmonary, central nervous system, cardiovascular and miscellaneous). A hospitalization was considered chemotoxicity-related if a toxicity diagnosis was the primary reason for admission (i.e., first billing code) or occurred in the second billing position only if the cancer diagnosis was in the primary billing position. Hospitalizations for chemotherapy administration for primary or relapsed cancer were excluded. Logistic regression was used to examine the following factors for their association with chemotoxicity-related hospitalization: age at cancer diagnosis, sex, year of diagnosis (2011-2014; 2015-2018), insurance (commercial, Medicaid) and primary cancer diagnosis.Results: We identified 897 eligible patients (ALL: n=461, AML: n=79, HL: n=202, NHL: n=155). Median age at diagnosis was 15y (range, 0-21), 52.7% were male, 54.2% were diagnosed between 2011 and 2014, and 70.2% had commercial insurance. Medicaid patients were younger than those with commercial insurance (median age at diagnosis: 12y [range, 0.9-21] vs. 17y [0-21y]), and were less likely to carry a diagnosis of ALL (46% vs. 54%, P<0.001) but more likely to have AML (15% vs. 6%, P<0.001). Over the 4,736 person-months of follow-up, 360 patients (40.1%) had 636 chemotoxicity-related hospitalizations (ALL: 56.9%, AML: 8.9%, HL: 20.9%, NHL: 13.2%); 164 (18.3%) patients had ≥1 chemotoxicity-related hospitalization. Median time to first chemotoxicity-related hospitalization from start of therapy was 37d (interquartile range, 12-78). Chemotoxicity claims included hematologic toxicities (63.6%), infections (22.7%) and gastrointestinal toxicities (6.1%); the figure shows the distribution of claims during these hospitalizations by hematologic malignancy. The average length of stay (LOS) for chemotoxicity-related hospitalization was 6.8±8.7d [5.8±7.8d (HL) to 8.6±12.6d (AML)]. Multivariable logistic regression analysis identified Medicaid insurance (vs. commercial) to be associated with lower odds of chemotoxicity-related hospitalization (odds ratio=0.68, 95% confidence interval 0.56-0.84, P<0.001).Conclusions: Over 40% of children with hematologic malignancies require chemotoxicity-related hospitalizations during the first year of treatment. These data could be used to provide guidance to patients and their families and inform healthcare policy decisions. [Display omitted] DisclosuresNo relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Health Programs as Social Programs: Navigating Difficult Healthcare Policy Decisions

Apart from public health and preventive medicine campaigns, a health authority funds healthcare programs primarily for the purpose of immediately improving clinical patient out­ comes. For individual health treatments, funding decisions by Canadian provincial govern­ ments incorporate some equivalent of a cost­benefit calculation,such as the cost­effectiveness analysis (CEA). This research is important to health policy makers because it considers the effects of expanding a CEA to analyze societal impacts that are already of importance to the government when the appropriateness or accuracy of the cost­benefit calculation is unclear. I use the example of in vitro fertilization funding programs to demonstrate the argument that health programs may also address other relevant issues related to the social determinants of health.

Towards a More Simplified Approach for Evaluating Strength of Evidence in Health Technology Assessments.

It is imperative to thoroughly evaluate the safety, effectiveness, and cost-utility of a new medical device prior to the widespread adoption of the technology. Health technology assessment (HTA) is a systematic evaluation of the benefits and harms of a health technology that aims to inform healthcare policy decisions, improve utilization of cost-effective new technologies, and prevent the adoption of devices with harmful or doubtful value for the health system. Even though dozens of organizations perform HTAs, there is no universally accepted criterion for conducting, reporting, and deriving conclusions from an HTA. Thus, there are considerable discrepancies in the methodologies among HTAs such that the same device with the same underlying clinical evidence is often endorsed by one agency but not another, leading to inconsistencies in healthcare coverage policy decisions. Here, we propose a more simplified and unified approach for summarizing clinical effectiveness and safety outcomes for HTAs. We developed a short, semi-quantitative scoring tool that can be used to provide an overall evaluation of evidence strength in HTAs consisting of five categories: (a) the number of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that have been performed using the technology, (b) the risk of bias among RCTs, (c) the effect size observed for the key effectiveness outcome, (d) the effect size observed for the key safety outcome, and (e) the generalizability of outcomes observed in RCTs to those observed in real-world clinical use. Utilization of this simplified semi-quantitative framework may simplify the HTA process and improve the consistency of the resulting recommendations.

Evaluating the Social Cost of Conflict between New Media and Society: The Case of Gaming Disorder in South Korea

Historically, the introduction of a new media in mass market caused a strong conflict starting from the nineteenth century popular literature, comics, rock music and film. Interestingly, these conflicts have shown similar and repeated patterns, which is now called media panic and moral regulation, and games are following this pattern. In 2019, Gaming disorder (GD) was decided to be included in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), and similar conflicts on games arenow expected. However, the social cost and damage have not been fully addressed until now. Thus, this study focuses on the estimation of the social cost induced by GD for policy design and decisions in the public healthcare of South Korea. Using the contingent valuation method, a popular valuation method in econometrics for non-market goods, this study has tried to estimate the social cost induced by the introduction of GD into the public healthcare practice. Focusing on a false positive problem in the diagnosis, this study estimates that the willingness to pay for GD diagnosis for children is about KRW 152 K (USD 135). Considering the difference between the prevalence of GD (1.9%) and GD suspicion rate of children in the respondents (12.54%), the excessive medical diagnosis cost due to the false positive problem is estimated to KRW 101 billion (USD 89.6 M), which is about four times more than the annual medical cost for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) treatment in South Korea. Thus, strong scientific proof and a cautious policy approach on GD are needed before the inclusion of GD in the public health practice.

Governing by Polling Public Opinion: A Potentially Dangerous Idea for Our Healthcare System.

Kaplan and Baron-Epel advanced the notion that findings from public surveys should inform health policy decision making with respect to funding allocation. This approach to governing can draw large support from the populace, legislators, and the academic community alike. Yet, it has the potential to undermine evidence-based health policy decision making. In this paper, I delineate six drawbacks and several related corollaries drawn from historical events that have occurred during the recent coronavirus pandemic. These examples illustrate the dire downstream consequences (e.g., disregard for the needs of minority groups; diminution of critical services not broadly supported by the public; promotion of fringe group or foreign actor agendas; advancement of poorly informed opinions; shift from a forward-thinking, proactive perspective to a retroactive one; and reliance on potentially biased estimates) that may follow if public surveys become embedded in healthcare policy decision making. Without solutions to the drawbacks delineated in this paper, health policy driven by public opinion is likely to cause more harm than good.

Using Multiple Cause-of-Death Analysis to Estimate Systemic Autoimmune Disease Mortality Burden in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.

Autoimmune diseases are not always recognized as urgent health issues, despite a worldwide prevalence of 4%-5%. Most estimates come from high-income countries, as low- and middle-income countries face more issues of under-reporting. Despite this and the lack of recognition under current reporting practices, the role these diseases play in mortality must be acknowledged. In particular, considering multiple causes of death as opposed to a single cause of death results in a 1.5-4.2-fold increase in deaths classified as relating to autoimmune diseases, evidence of their share in overall mortality burden, a factor important for patient care and healthcare policy decision making. However, formulating such policies and programs for timely, appropriate diagnoses and care is stymied in low- and middle-income countries by the shortage of methodologically sound studies on mortality from systemic autoimmune diseases. This limitation exacerbates inequalities and health gaps among patients in different countries and localities. Multiple cause-of-death methodology has been validated for research on other diseases and demonstrates the mortality burden of these illnesses in countries where traditional methodological approaches, primarily based on prospective cohort studies, are not feasible. Studying mortality from systemic autoimmune diseases by analyzing multiple causes of death with data from national mortality registries is a low-cost alternative to traditional mortality analysis. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate and defend the usefulness of this approach to estimate mortality burden.

Rawlsian justice in healthcare: a response to Cox and Fritz

Cox and Fritz state the central problem as the absence of a framework for healthcare policy decisions; but, they overlook the theoretical underpinnings of public law. In response, they propose...

How the Trump Administration's Pandemic Health Care Response Failed Racial Health Equity: Case Studies of Structural Racism and a Call for Equity Mindfulness in Federal Health Policy Making

The racial health equity implications of the Trump administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We focus on four key health care policy decisions made by the administration in response to the public health emergency: rejecting a special Marketplace enrollment period, failing to use its full powers to enhance state Medicaid emergency options, refusing to suspend the public charge rule, and failing to target provider relief funds to providers serving the uninsured. In each case, the administration's policy choices intensified, rather than mitigated, racial health inequality. Its choices had a disproportionate adverse impact on minority populations and patients who are more likely to depend on public programs, be poor, experience pandemic-related job loss, lack insurance, rely on health care safety net providers, and be exposed to public charge sanctions. Ending structural racism in health care and promoting racial health care equity demands an equity-mindful approach to the pursuit of policies that enhance-rather than undermine-health care accessibility and effectiveness and resources for the poorest communities and the providers that serve them.

Interdependence among mental health care providers: evidence from a spatial dynamic panel data model with interactive fixed effects

Understanding the pricing and operation mechanism of community mental health (CMH) providers is important for designing effective health care policies as the CMH system has been playing an essential role in providing mental health services. This paper studies the delivery of community-based mental health care and interdependence among CMH providers by investigating the pricing patterns of CMH providers in the Detroit-Wayne County of Michigan. We employ a spatial dynamic panel data model with interactive fixed effects to identify the strategic interactions among the providers, along both dimensions of time-series and cross-section spatial variations. We find evidence for significant spatial interdependence among the CMH providers, even after controlling for the interactive fixed effects. In contrast, the coefficient on the spatial-dynamic term is insignificant, suggesting that no time-space simultaneous effects exist. We also find the pure dynamic effect to be positive and significant. These findings provide important implications for mental health care policy and practice decisions.

A QuESt for speed: rapid qualitative evidence syntheses as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has created a sense of urgency in the research community in their bid to contribute to the evidence required for healthcare policy decisions. With such urgency, researchers experience methodological challenges to maintain the rigour and transparency of their work. With this in mind, we offer reflections on our recent experience of undertaking a rapid Cochrane qualitative evidence synthesis (QES).MethodsThis process paper, using a reflexive approach, describes a rapid QES prepared during, and in response to, the COVID-19 pandemic.FindingsThis paper reports the methodological decisions we made and the process we undertook. We place our decisions in the context of guidance offered in relation to rapid reviews and previously conducted QESs. We highlight some of the challenges we encountered in finding the balance between the time needed for thoughtfulness and comprehensiveness whilst providing a rapid response to an urgent request for evidence.ConclusionThe need for more guidance on rapid QES remains, but such guidance needs to be based on actual worked examples and case studies. This paper and the reflections offered may provide a useful framework for others to use and further develop.

Can patient-reported room cleanliness measures predict hospital-acquired C. difficile infection? A study of acute care facilities in New York state

Patient experience measures, like those form the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare providers and Systems survey, are increasingly used in healthcare policy decisions. However, it remains unclear if these reflect quality of care, like rates of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). This study examined the relationship between patient-reported room cleanliness, from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare providers and Systems survey, and hospital-acquired C. difficile infection (HA-CDI) rates in NYS acute care hospitals. A random-effects regression analysis compared the percentage of patients indicating their room was "always" and "sometimes/never" kept clean to that facility's average HA-CDI rates, controlling for known predictors. A higher percentage of patients reporting their room was "always" kept clean was associated with significantly lower rates of HA-CDI. Facilities experience 0.031 fewer cases of HA-CDI/1,000 discharges for every percentage point increase in the number of patients rating their room as "always" clean (P = .006). A higher percentage of patients reporting their room was "sometimes/never" kept clean was associated with higher rates of HA-CDI (β = 0.033), but this was not significant (P = .096). These findings suggest patient perceptions of cleanliness may reflect microbial cleanliness and these measures could assist in the prevention of HAIs. However, further research is needed.