title: The relationship between service intensity and the quality of health care: an exploratory data analysis.
abstract: This paper provides an empirical check of some assumptions used to define the quality of care in the health services literature. Specifically, we test (i) whether service intensity is the only important determinant of a provider's quality and (ii) whether higher service intensity always causes higher quality. Using a panel of hospitals from Washington State, we find evidence that rejects both of these assumptions. As a result, further work is needed to postulate a more general definition that does not rely on these assumptions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, Weber State University, Utah, USA. dfriesner@weber.edu
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Friesner
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rosenman
mesh_terms: D006302:Health Services Research; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014861:Washington