Does Hospital Crowding Matter? Evidence from Trauma and Orthopedics in England
利用英格兰急诊入院的伪随机变化，估计医院拥挤对医疗决策和患者健康的影响，发现入院冲击使非计划再入院率增加4.1%，且“更快更差”的出院是主因。
This paper estimates the impact of hospital crowding on medical treatment decisions and patient health outcomes. Exploiting pseudorandom variation in emergency admissions, I find that a one-standard-deviation admission shock increases the unplanned readmission rate by 4.1 percent. Nonparametric and heterogeneity analyses suggest that “quicker and sicker” discharges contribute to the additional readmissions. The crowding impacts are larger in hospital departments with fewer beds, sicker patients, and stronger incentives to admit nonemergency patients.