Table 1.
Hospital Characteristics by Operating Margin in 2006
| Operating Margina | Total sample | Bottom 10% | 11–50% | 51%–89% | Top 10% | p-value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1 (−23.7 to 25.0) | −15.5 (−23.7 to −9.0) | −1.3 (−8.9 to 2.1) | 5.9 (2.1 to 14.3) | 19.5 (14.3 to 25.0) | ||
| Total Margina | 4.3 (−17.3 to 24.3) | −9.5 (−17.3 to 17.7) | 1.0 (−17.3 to 24.3) | 7.4 (−17.3 to 24.3) | 17.8 (−17.3 to 24.3) | |
| Region | ||||||
| Northeast | 16% | 14% | 24% | 13% | 3.4% | p < 0.001 |
| Midwest | 30% | 23% | 29% | 34% | 25% | |
| South | 36% | 48% | 32% | 34% | 50% | |
| West | 17% | 14% | 15% | 19% | 21% | |
| Size | ||||||
| Small | 41% | 54% | 41% | 38% | 43% | p < 0.001 |
| Medium | 48% | 38% | 49% | 49% | 49% | |
| Large | 11% | 7.7% | 10% | 13% | 8.3% | |
| Profit Status | ||||||
| For-profit | 21% | 34% | 14% | 16% | 54% | p < 0.001 |
| Private non-profit | 79% | 66% | 86% | 84% | 46% | |
| Urban | 81% | 75% | 79% | 82% | 91% | p < 0.001 |
| Teaching | 6.0% | 7.1% | 5.2% | 7.1% | 3.4% | p = 0.61 |
| CCU | 35% | 21% | 34% | 40% | 32% | p < 0.001 |
| MICU | 70% | 52% | 69% | 75% | 69% | p < 0.001 |
| Percent Medicare | 48% | 50% | 50% | 47% | 45% | p < 0.001 |
| Percent Medicaid | 16% | 16% | 16% | 16% | 16% | p = 0.65 |
| Nurse ratio | 7.0 | 6.9 | 6.5 | 7.2 | 7.9 | p < 0.001 |
| Proportion of black patients | 7.7% | 13% | 7.9% | 6.4% | 7.0% | p < 0.001 |
a Median listed along with the range in parentheses
Source of Information: 2006 Medicare Cost Reports, 2007 MedPAR data, and 2007 annual survey of the American Hospital Association
Notes: CCU is cardiac care unit. MICU is medical intensive care unit. Percent Medicare and percent Medicaid refer to the percentage of patients with each type of insurance, respectively. Nurse–staffing ratio is per 1,000 patient days. P-values refer to the statistical significance of chi-squared tests or simple linear regressions, as appropriate, for hospital characteristics across the categories of operating margin. The number of hospitals in the sample was 3,262