Physician's case volume of intensive care unit pneumonia admissions and in-hospital mortality

Rationale: Although several studies have investigated volume-outcome relationships for surgical procedures, there has been no such study of intensive care unit (ICU) patients admitted for pneumonia. Objectives: This study examines associations between in-hospital mortality of ICU-admitted pneumonia patients and their attending physician's case volume. Methods: We used 2002-2004 claims data from Taiwan's National Health Insurance for all 87,479 adult ICU admissions for pneumonia. Patients were assigned to one of four groups, on the basis of their physician's ICU pneumonia case volume (low volume,