Short‐term fluctuations in hospital demand: implications for admission, discharge, and discriminatory behavior

A-Tier
Journal: RAND Journal of Economics
Year: 2008
Volume: 39
Issue: 2
Pages: 586-606

Authors (3)

Rajiv Sharma (Portland State University) Miron Stano (not in RePEc) Renu Gehring (not in RePEc)

Score contribution per author:

1.341 = (α=2.01 / 3 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We analyze admission and discharge decisions when hospitals become capacity constrained on high‐demand days, and develop a test for discrimination that, under certain circumstances, does not require controls for differences across patient groups. On high‐demand days, patients are discharged earlier than expected compared to those discharged on low‐demand days. High demand creates no statistically significant differences in hospitals' admission behavior. Thus, hospitals appear to ration capacity by hastening discharges rather than by restricting admissions. We could not reject a null hypothesis of no discrimination against Medicaid patients in discharges.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:bla:randje:v:39:y:2008:i:2:p:586-606
Journal Field
Industrial Organization
Author Count
3
Added to Database
2026-01-29