title: Length of hospital stay of Medicare patients in the post-prospective-payment-system era.
abstract: This study examines factors determining hospital length of stay (LOS) for Medicare patients in the post-prospective-payment-system (PPS) era according to type of ownership, geographical region, bed size, and financial performance. The study design includes a number of economic and financial variables. In the empirical findings, the following factors are significant in determining hospital LOS of Medicare patients: hospital size, type of ownership, profitability, teaching status, and competition. Other studies have examined factors influencing length of hospitalization; however, none of these studies investigates the effect on LOS of a change in the type of hospital ownership. Furthermore, this study uses more recent and comprehensive data than in the current literature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Care Administration, Jackson State University, USA.
authors.forename: Mustafa Z
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: Younis
mesh_terms: D006742:Hospital Bed Capacity; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006278:Medicare; D017059:Models, Econometric; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D011445:Prospective Payment System; D014481:United States