Assessing Hospital Resource Utilization with Application to Imaging for Patients Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer

Resource utilization measures are typically modeled by relying on clinical characteristics. However, in some settings, those clinical markers are not available, and hospitals are unable to explore potential inefficiencies or resource misutilization. We propose a novel approach to exploring misutilization that solely relies on administrative data in the form of patient characteristics and competing resource utilization, with the latter being a novel addition. We demonstrate this approach in a 2019 patient cohort diagnosed with prostate cancer (n = 51,111) across 1056 U.S. healthcare facilities using Premier, Inc.'s (Charlotte, NC, USA) all payor databases. A multivariate logistic regression model was fitted using administrative information and competing resources utilization. A decision curve analysis informed by industry average standards of utilization allows for a definition of misutilization with regards to these industry standards. Odds ratios were extracted at the patient level to demonstrate differences in misutilization by patient characteristics, such as race; Black individuals experienced higher under-utilization compared to White individuals (p < 0.0001). Volume-adjusted Poisson rate regression models allow for the identification and ranking of facilities with large departures in utilization. The proposed approach is scalable and easily generalizable to other diseases and resources and can be complemented with clinical information from electronic health record information, when available.