TABLE 3.
Characteristics of Hospitals According to Tertile of Diagnostic Overuse Index
| Tertile of overuse | P value | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tertile 1 (n = 207 hospitals, mean index value = 0.332, range of index values = 0.057-0.483) | Tertile 2 (n = 207 hospitals, mean index value = 0.571, range of index values = 0.489-0.638) | Tertile 3 (N = 206 hospitals, mean index value = 0.721, range of index values = 0.639-0.986) | ||
| Hospital size, median [IQR] | ||||
| Total hospital beds | 68 [25-225] | 186 [89-337] | 197 [126-311] | <.0001 |
| Annual admissions | 1,699 [627-9,562] | 7,902 [3,279-16,497] | 8,507 [4,469-15,425] | <.0001 |
| Elixhauser Comorbidity Index score,a median [IQR] | 3.79 [2.94-4.75] | 3.74 [3.01-4.69] | 3.88 [3.13-4.55] | .605 |
| Teaching status N (%) | ||||
| Non-teaching hospital | 153 (75) | 118 (58) | 139 (68) | .001 |
| Minor teaching hospital | 43 (21) | 60 (29) | 54 (26) | |
| Major teaching hospital | 9 (4) | 26 (13) | 12 (6) | |
| Critical access N (%) | 98 (48) | 10 (5) | 2 (1) | <.0001 |
a
At the hospital level, the mean Elixhauser Comorbidity Index (ECI) score was calculated by taking the mean Elixhauser score of all discharged patients, not just those in our sample.
Abbreviation: IQR, interquartile range.