When it comes to new technologies--especially surgical robots--hospitals are growing green with envy.
Facilities were more likely to acquire a new surgical robot if neighboring hospitals had done so, according to a study from a group of private and government researchers published in this month's Healthcare journal.
The robots are high in cost--ranging from $1 million to $2.25 million--and controversy persists over whether they are actually beneficial, according to the study's authors. However, that's not stopping hospitals from jumping on the bandwagon. There may even be a "medical arms race" occurring that influences what technologies are being adopted, the authors say.
The study looked at 554 hospitals performing radical prostatectomy from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Statewide Inpatient Databases for seven states.
Publicly available data was analyzed from the website of the manufacturer of the da Vinci robot, Sunnyvale, California-based Intuitive Surgical, and then was combined with data collected from the hospitals to see when they purchased the technology. The authors found that a hospital whose neighbor had acquired a surgical robot was more likely to also get one.
According to the authors, the results suggest that tech adoption may be driven "in part by competition among neighboring hospitals rather than solely by the mission to provide optimal patient care."
What's more, because of a shift in the healthcare industry toward minimally invasive procedures, the medical robot market is expected to grow rapidly--despite disputes over safety.
To learn more:
- check out the study