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Development of a scalar hospital-specific severity of illness measure
1Department of Health, School of Management, Widener University, Chester, PA 19013.
Journal of Medical Systems
|February 1, 1993
Abstract:
Cost-function analysis of hospitals has been criticized for not including severity adjustments. We tested a scalar hospital-specific severity index, derived from Admission MedisGroup Scores. Alternative versions (i.e., linear/nonlinear) of the index were evaluated by estimating cost functions on a sample of 201 Pennsylvania hospitals. The scalar index was a strong predictor of costs. The results also suggest that the omission of a severity variable in a hospital cost function may cause a specification error.