Table 2.
Hospital Characteristics of OS by Time in OS*
| Characteristic | Time in Observation | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8–24 hours | 25–48 hours | p-value | 49–72 hours | p-value | 73 + hours | p-value | |
| Total number of OS visits | 420,407 | 215,006 | 32,188 | 29,131 | |||
| Percentage of OS by hospital ratio of OS to OS + Inpatient Encounters† | |||||||
| Hospitals with ratio <5% | 4.57 | 4.28 | .00 | 4.66 | .49 | 4.80 | .08 |
| Hospitals with ratio of 5–10% | 23.30 | 21.04 | .00 | 22.42 | .00 | 12.99 | .00 |
| Hospitals with ratio of 11–20% | 46.97 | 47.99 | .00 | 48.73 | .00 | 49.85 | .00 |
| Hospitals with ratio of 21–30% | 18.54 | 19.67 | .00 | 18.85 | .17 | 28.91 | .00 |
| Hospitals with ratio of 31% or more | 6.62 | 7.02 | .00 | 5.35 | .00 | 3.45 | .00 |
| Percentage of OS by hospital type† | |||||||
| Critical access hospital | 9.87 | 8.48 | .00 | 4.98 | .00 | 3.24 | .00 |
| Teaching hospital | 39.27 | 37.93 | .00 | 38.35 | .00 | 26.22 | .00 |
| Percentage of OS by hospital bed size† | |||||||
| Small | 19.34 | 19.03 | .00 | 17.12 | .00 | 10.96 | .00 |
| Medium | 25.19 | 25.71 | .00 | 25.66 | .07 | 25.50 | .24 |
| Large | 55.47 | 55.26 | .11 | 57.22 | .00 | 63.54 | .00 |
| Percentage of OS by hospital location† | |||||||
| Large metropolitan (pop. over 200,000) | 35.06 | 34.23 | .00 | 34.75 | .27 | 15.53 | .00 |
| Small metropolitan (pop. under 200,000) | 39.98 | 40.60 | .00 | 44.99 | .00 | 71.68 | .00 |
| Nonmetropolitan | 24.96 | 25.16 | .08 | 20.26 | .00 | 12.79 | .00 |
| Percentage of OS by hospital ownership† | |||||||
| Government owned | 18.26 | 16.56 | .00 | 13.25 | .00 | 7.80 | .00 |
| Private not-for-profit | 68.29 | 69.98 | .00 | 73.40 | .00 | 87.76 | .00 |
| Private for-profit | 13.45 | 13.46 | .92 | 13.35 | .69 | 4.44 | .00 |
| Average Medicare 2009 provider-specific case mix index (CMI) | 1.51 | 1.49 | .00 | 1.51 | .08 | 1.53 | .00 |
*
p-values are calculated using the 8–24 hour group as the reference using the chi-squared (categorical) or t-test (continuous).
†
Percentages are within each group of time in observation.
OS, observation services.
Source. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Center for Delivery, Organization, and Markets, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), State Databases, 2009.