Hospital competition, resource allocation and quality of care

Abstract

Background: A variety of approaches have been used to contain escalating hospital costs. One approach is intensifying price competition. The increase in price based competition, which changes the incentives hospitals face, coupled with the fact that consumers can more easily evaluate the quality of hotel services compared with the quality of clinical care, may lead hospitals to allocate more resources into hotel rather than clinical services.

Injury Hospitalizations: Using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample

“…16,17 Use of this information by hospital and ED administrators may allow for better allocation of resources in terms of medical personnel and technology available in these settings; this in turn might improve immediate and long-term clinical outcomes. 18 Different patterns are also evident by diagnosis and cause of injury. Although motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of injury mortality accounting for more than 40% of all unintentional injury deaths, falls represent the leading cause of injury-related hospitalizations and ED visits.…”

Health Care Markets, Regulators, and Certifiers

“…They obtain mixed results across quality measures. Mukamel et al (2002) use difference-in-differences (DID) methods to examine how changes in HHIs affect quality. They combine evidence that increased clinical spending is associated with lower mortality for a range of high mortality diagnoses, including heart attack, with evidence that increasing HHI is associated with lower spending and conclude that increasing HHI causes higher mortality.…”

Palliative Care for the Older Adult

“…160 In order to improve the quality of palliative care provided, many programs have developed educational programs; however, research is needed to determine the specific needs of this group, and how best to meet those needs. 161,162 Residential care and assisted living Individuals who are unable to stay at home alone but who do not need the intensive 24-hour supervision of a nursing home may choose to reside in an assisted living facility. Assisted living facilities are paid for out of pocket by the patient or family.…”