A Multinomial Logit Model for the Spatial Distribution of Hospital Utilization
构建并估计了一个多项Logit模型，用于解释和预测区域内住院患者的医院选择行为，模型拟合良好，对卫生规划者和医院管理者有参考价值。
Effective planning and management of multi-institutional health care systems require models to explain and predict hospital utilization in a region. In this study, a multinomial logit model has been formulated and estimated for inpatient hospital utilization in a region. Various measures and indexes that account for the relative attractiveness of hospitals are used in the specification of the model. A data base of more than 130,000 patient records is used to estimate the model. The model provides a good fit of the data and yields insights of particular interest to health planners and hospital administrators. The study also shows that acceptable estimation results can be obtained by careful selection of the estimation method, the procedures for dealing with zero frequencies, and the independent variables.