Cost inefficiency and mortality rates in Florida hospitals.
Health Econ
; 15(4): 419-31, 2006 Apr.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-16389631
ABSTRACT
This study examines the relationship between health outcomes and cost inefficiency in Florida hospitals over the period 1999-2001, with health outcomes measured by risk-adjusted in-hospital mortality rates. Previous research has come to conflicting conclusions regarding the relationship between costs and health outcomes. We hypothesize that these seemingly conflicting findings are due to the fact that total cost has two components--cost that reflects the best use of resources under current circumstances and cost associated with waste or inefficiency. By isolating costs due to inefficiency, we can examine directly their relationship, if any, to hospital mortality rates, and begin to assess whether policies that create incentives for hospitals to increase efficiency have adverse effects on health outcomes. We regress an in-hospital mortality index for each hospital on a measure of the hospital's cost inefficiency, obtained from a stochastic cost frontier estimation, as well as on predicted mortality and a set of variables linked to mortality performance. Our results indicate a positive and significant relationship between a hospital's mortality performance and its inefficiency on average, a one percentage point reduction in cost inefficiency would be associated with one fewer in-hospital death per 10,000 discharges, holding patient risk and other factors constant.
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Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Contexto en salud:
1_ASSA2030
Problema de salud:
1_financiamento_saude
Asunto principal:
Mortalidad Hospitalaria
/
Eficiencia Organizacional
Tipo de estudio:
Health_economic_evaluation
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Límite:
Humans
País/Región como asunto:
America do norte
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Health Econ
Asunto de la revista:
SERVICOS DE SAUDE
Año:
2006
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Estados Unidos