Table 1–
Description of Beneficiaries from Emergency Department Visit in Year
| Short-stay | Observation stay |
Both | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4.22 | 1.72 | 2.29 | |
| 90-day mortality rate (%) | 7.58 | 4.26 | 5.94 |
| 30-day readmission rate (%) | 13.97 | 8.98 | 24.77 |
| 90-day readmission rate (%) | 25.28 | 18.36 | 46.05 |
| 30-day return ED visit rate (%) | 9.66 | 11.16 | 26.79 |
| 90-day return ED visit rate (%) | 19.47 | 22.31 | 48.80 |
| Age (in years) | 77.48 | 77.86 | 78.01 |
| Male (%) | 43.93 | 37.64 | 41.14 |
| Black (%) | 8.93 | 8.58 | 10.45 |
| White (%) | 86.53 | 86.99 | 85.31 |
| Other Race (%) | 4.43 | 4.32 | 4.15 |
| % Rural | 23.94 | 25.33 | 26.55 |
| Quan Index | 0.93 | 0.67 | 1.03 |
| Midwest | 27.20 | 28.29 | 30.68 |
| Northeast | 18.79 | 14.83 | 13.51 |
| South | 37.93 | 42.31 | 40.57 |
| West | 16.07 | 14.57 | 15.25 |
| Weekend | 22.06 | 24.65 | 23.25 |
| Spring | 28.44 | 27.93 | 28.14 |
| Fall | 20.10 | 20.42 | 20.86 |
| Winter | 23.84 | 23.38 | 22.35 |
| N | 1,499,692 | 1,612,776 | 239,375 |
Source: Authors’ analysis of Medicare claims data, 2007 – 2010.
Note: A chi-squared test rejects the null hypothesis that the means are equal in all of the three groups for each variable. A pairwise t-test confirms that all the means are statistically different (P<0.01), except for the difference in age between the second and the third group.