IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iae/iaewps/wp2011n06.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Differences in Length of Stay between Public Hospitals, Treatment Centres and Private Providers: Selection or Efficiency?

Author

Listed:
  • Luigi Siciliani

    (Department of Economics and Related Studies, and Centre for Health Economics, University of York; and Centre for Economic Policy Research, London)

  • Peter Sivey

    (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melborne)

  • Andrew Street

    (Centre for Health Economics, University of York)

Abstract

We investigate differences in patients’ length of stay between National Health Service (NHS) public hospitals, public treatment centres and private treatment centres that provide elective (non-emergency) hip replacement to publicly-funded patients. We find that private treatment centres and public treatment centres have on average respectively 40% and 18% shorter length of stay compared to NHS public hospitals, even after controlling for differences in age, gender, number and type of diagnosis, deprivation and geographical variation. We therefore interpret such differences as due to efficiency as opposed to selection (treatment of less complex cases). Quantile regression suggests that the proportionate differences between different provider types are larger at the higher conditional quantiles of length of stay compared to the lower ones.

Suggested Citation

  • Luigi Siciliani & Peter Sivey & Andrew Street, 2011. "Differences in Length of Stay between Public Hospitals, Treatment Centres and Private Providers: Selection or Efficiency?," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2011n06, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    • Handle: RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2011n06
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/downloads/working_paper_series/wp2011n06.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Street, Andrew & Sivey, Peter & Mason, Anne & Miraldo, Marisa & Siciliani, Luigi, 2010. "Are English treatment centres treating less complex patients?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 150-157, February.
    2. Giorgia Marini & Marisa Miraldo & Rowena Jacobs & Maria Goddard, 2008. "Giving greater financial independence to hospitals—does it make a difference? The case of English NHS Trusts," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(6), pages 751-775, June.
    3. Bruce Hollingsworth, 2008. "The measurement of efficiency and productivity of health care delivery," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(10), pages 1107-1128, October.
    4. Carine Milcent, 2005. "Hospital ownership, reimbursement systems and mortality rates," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(11), pages 1151-1168, November.
    5. Paul H. Jensen & Elizabeth Webster & Julia Witt, 2009. "Hospital type and patient outcomes: an empirical examination using AMI readmission and mortality records," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(12), pages 1440-1460, December.
    6. Annika Herr, 2008. "Cost and technical efficiency of German hospitals: does ownership matter?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(9), pages 1057-1071, September.
    7. Karen Eggleston & Yu‐Chu Shen & Joseph Lau & Christopher H. Schmid & Jia Chan, 2008. "Hospital ownership and quality of care: what explains the different results in the literature?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(12), pages 1345-1362, December.
    8. Gian Paolo Barbetta & Gilberto Turati & Angelo M. Zago, 2007. "Behavioral differences between public and private not‐for‐profit hospitals in the Italian national health service," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(1), pages 75-96, January.
    9. Mehdi Farsi & Massimo Filippini, 2008. "Effects of ownership, subsidization and teaching activities on hospital costs in Switzerland," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(3), pages 335-350, March.
    10. Lien, Hsien-Ming & Chou, Shin-Yi & Liu, Jin-Tan, 2008. "Hospital ownership and performance: Evidence from stroke and cardiac treatment in Taiwan," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 1208-1223, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mareike Heimeshoff & Jonas Schreyögg & Oliver Tiemann, 2014. "Employment effects of hospital privatization in Germany," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 15(7), pages 747-757, September.
    2. Luigi Siciliani & Peter Sivey & Andrew Street, 2013. "Differences In Length Of Stay For Hip Replacement Between Public Hospitals, Specialised Treatment Centres And Private Providers: Selection Or Efficiency?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(2), pages 234-242, February.
    3. Brekke, Kurt R. & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2012. "Quality competition with profit constraints," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 642-659.
    4. Cheng, Terence C. & Haisken-DeNew, John P. & Yong, Jongsay, 2015. "Cream skimming and hospital transfers in a mixed public-private system," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 156-164.
    5. Moscone, Francesco & Siciliani, Luigi & Tosetti, Elisa & Vittadini, Giorgio, 2020. "Do public and private hospitals differ in quality? Evidence from Italy," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    6. José M. Cordero & Agustín García-García & Enrique Lau-Cortés & Cristina Polo, 2021. "Efficiency and Productivity Change of Public Hospitals in Panama: Do Management Schemes Matter?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-21, August.
    7. Roberto Colombi & Gianmaria Martini & Giorgio Vittadini, 2017. "Determinants of transient and persistent hospital efficiency: The case of Italy," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(S2), pages 5-22, September.
    8. Moscelli, Giuseppe & Gravelle, Hugh & Siciliani, Luigi & Gutacker, Nils, 2018. "The effect of hospital ownership on quality of care: Evidence from England," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 322-344.
    9. Brekke, Kurt Richard & Siciliani, Luigi, 2011. "Quality competition with profit constraints: Do non-profit firms provide higher quality than for-profit firms?," CEPR Discussion Papers 8284, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Helmut Herwartz & Christoph Strumann, 2012. "On the effect of prospective payment on local hospital competition in Germany," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 48-62, March.
    11. Ivonne Lindlbauer & Jonas Schreyögg, 2014. "The relationship between hospital specialization and hospital efficiency: do different measures of specialization lead to different results?," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 365-378, December.
    12. Thomas Czypionka & Markus Kraus & Susanne Mayer & Gerald Röhrling, 2014. "Efficiency, ownership, and financing of hospitals: The case of Austria," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 331-347, December.
    13. Germà Bel & Marc Esteve, 2018. "“Is Private Production of Hospital Services Cheaper than Public Production? A Meta-Regression of Public vs Private Costs and Efficiency for Hospitals”," IREA Working Papers 201824, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Oct 2018.
    14. Pérotin, Virginie & Zamora, Bernarda & Reeves, Rachel & Bartlett, Will & Allen, Pauline, 2013. "Does hospital ownership affect patient experience? An investigation into public–private sector differences in England," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 633-646.
    15. Carine Milcent & Saad Zbiri, 2022. "Supplementary private health insurance: The impact of physician financial incentives on medical practice," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 57-72, January.
    16. Helmut Herwartz & Christoph Strumann, 2014. "Hospital efficiency under prospective reimbursement schemes: an empirical assessment for the case of Germany," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 15(2), pages 175-186, March.
    17. Monica Giancotti & Annamaria Guglielmo & Marianna Mauro, 2017. "Efficiency and optimal size of hospitals: Results of a systematic search," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(3), pages 1-40, March.
    18. Yauheniya Varabyova & Carl Rudolf Blankart & Aleksandra Torbica & Jonas Schreyögg, 2017. "Comparing the Efficiency of Hospitals in Italy and Germany: Nonparametric Conditional Approach Based on Partial Frontier," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 379-394, September.
    19. Christoph Strumann & Alexander Geissler & Reinhard Busse & Christoph Pross, 2022. "Can competition improve hospital quality of care? A difference-in-differences approach to evaluate the effect of increasing quality transparency on hospital quality," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 23(7), pages 1229-1242, September.
    20. Nurhafiza Md Hamzah & Kok Fong See, 2019. "Technical efficiency and its influencing factors in Malaysian hospital pharmacy services," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 462-474, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Length of stay; public hospitals; treatment centres; private providers;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2011n06. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sheri Carnegie (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/mimelau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.