Private equity impacts

Hundreds of hospitals around the country are owned by private equity firms, but studies on how these acquisitions affect hospital staffing and patient outcomes are relatively few. A new paper coauthored by Joseph Dov Bruch, assistant professor of public health sciences, published in September in Annals of Internal Medicine, compares the emergency departments and intensive care units of hospitals acquired by private equity firms (the treatment group) to those of otherwise similar hospitals that did not change ownership (the control group). The researchers focused on changes to staffing and patient outcomes over a six-year period—the three years before and after hospitals in the treatment group were purchased by private equity firms. They found reduced staffing and staff salaries, increased patient transfers to other hospitals, shortened stays in the intensive care unit, and increased emergency department mortality after treatment group hospitals were acquired. The research suggests that cost-cutting measures such as staff reductions and salary decreases contribute to negative patient outcomes.—C. C.

Ostrich origins

If you’ve ever deliberately steered clear of knowledge that might cause you discomfort, you’ve exhibited what psychologists call the “ostrich effect.” But when do ever-curious children become head-in-the-sand adults? A study led by postdoctoral scholar Radhika Santhanagopalan, AM’25, PhD’25, PhD’25, examined the emergence of information avoidance in children. Across several experiments, older children (ages 7 to 10) were more likely than younger children (ages 5 to 6) to strategically avoid knowledge that might have negative effects on their emotions, self-perceptions, and preexisting beliefs. For example, older children were more likely than younger ones to opt out of watching a video about their favorite candy being bad for their teeth—but showed no such qualms about a similar video focused on their least favorite candy. The researchers found evidence that as children grow they are better able to consider how new information may affect their future emotional states. The study was published in June in Psychological Science.—S. A.

Biodiversity rebound

The Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction 66 million years ago, Earth’s most recent mass die-off, resulted in the disappearance of more than 75 percent of species. To determine how ocean ecosystems rebounded after the event, a research team including David Jablonski, William R. Kenan, Jr., Distinguished Service Professor of Geophysical Sciences, analyzed fossilized mollusks from before and after the die-off. Their data, published in May in Science Advances, reveal that despite the significant species loss, almost all of the ecological niches in the marine ecosystem remained inhabited. The researchers also found that a large survival pool did not guarantee a species a natural advantage down the road. These surprising conclusions run contrary to the common evolutionary model in which only the fittest species survive and predominate, offering important new information about how ecosystems rebound from mass extinction that may inform current marine conservation efforts.—B. S.