[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/hlthec/v27y2018i3pe30-e42.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Should I stay or should I go? Hospital emergency department waiting times and demand

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Sivey
Abstract
In the absence of the price mechanism, hospital emergency departments rely on waiting times, alongside prioritisation mechanisms, to restrain demand and clear the market. This paper estimates by how much the number of treatments demanded is reduced by a higher waiting time. I use variation in waiting times for low‐urgency patients caused by rare and resource‐intensive high‐urgency patients to estimate the relationship. I find that when waiting times are higher, more low‐urgency patients are deterred from treatment and leave the hospital during the waiting period without being treated. The waiting time elasticity of demand for low‐urgency patients is approximately −0.25 and is highest for the lowest‐urgency patients.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Sivey, 2018. "Should I stay or should I go? Hospital emergency department waiting times and demand," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 30-42, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:27:y:2018:i:3:p:e30-e42
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.3610
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.3610
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/hec.3610?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barzel, Yoram, 1974. "A Theory of Rationing by Waiting," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(1), pages 73-95, April.
    2. Nichols, Albert L & Zeckhauser, Richard J, 1982. "Targeting Transfers through Restrictions on Recipients," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(2), pages 372-377, May.
    3. Martin, Stephen & Rice, Nigel & Jacobs, Rowena & Smith, Peter, 2007. "The market for elective surgery: Joint estimation of supply and demand," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 263-285, March.
    4. Pizer, Steven D. & Prentice, Julia C., 2011. "Time is money: Outpatient waiting times and health insurance choices of elderly veterans in the United States," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 626-636, July.
    5. Peter Sivey, 2012. "The effect of waiting time and distance on hospital choice for English cataract patients," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(4), pages 444-456, April.
    6. Gravelle, Hugh & Dusheiko, Mark & Sutton, Matthew, 2002. "The demand for elective surgery in a public system: time and money prices in the UK National Health Service," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 423-449, May.
    7. Frank Windmeijer & Hugh Gravelle & Pierre Hoonhout, 2005. "Waiting lists, waiting times and admissions: an empirical analysis at hospital and general practice level," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(9), pages 971-985, September.
    8. Óscar D. Lourenço & Pedro L. Ferreira, 2005. "Utilization of public health centres in Portugal: effect of time costs and other determinants. Finite mixture models applied to truncated samples," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(9), pages 939-953, September.
    9. Alexeev, Michael & Leitzel, James, 2001. "Income distribution and price controls: Targeting a social safety net during economic transition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(9), pages 1647-1663, October.
    10. Lindsay, Cotton M & Feigenbaum, Bernard, 1984. "Rationing by Waiting Lists," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 404-417, June.
    11. Propper Carol & Sutton Matt & Whitnall Carolyn & Windmeijer Frank, 2008. "Did 'Targets and Terror' Reduce Waiting Times in England for Hospital Care?," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 8(2), pages 1-27, January.
    12. Nikolova, Silviya & Sinko, Arthur & Sutton, Matt, 2015. "Do maximum waiting times guarantees change clinical priorities for elective treatment? Evidence from Scotland," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 72-88.
    13. Hugh Gravelle & Luigi Siciliani, 2009. "Third degree waiting time discrimination: optimal allocation of a public sector healthcare treatment under rationing by waiting," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(8), pages 977-986, August.
    14. Martin, Stephen & Smith, Peter C., 1999. "Rationing by waiting lists: an empirical investigation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 141-164, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Agovino, Massimiliano & Musella, Gaetano & Scaletti, Alessandro, 2022. "Equilibrium and efficiency in the first aid services market: The case of the emergency department of Sorrento," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 82(PB).
    2. McQuestin, Dana & Noguchi, Masayoshi, 2020. "Worth the wait: The impact of government funding on hospital emergency waiting times," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(12), pages 1340-1344.
    3. Turner, Alex J & Francetic, Igor & Watkinson, Ruth & Gillibrand, Stephanie & Sutton, Matt, 2022. "Socioeconomic inequality in access to timely and appropriate care in emergency departments," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    4. Francetic, Igor & Meacock, Rachel & Sutton, Matt, 2024. "Free-for-all: Does crowding impact outcomes because hospital emergency departments do not prioritise effectively?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    5. Strobel, Stephenson, 2024. "Who responds to longer wait times? The effects of predicted emergency wait times on the health and volume of patients who present for care," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Strobel, Stephenson, 2024. "Who responds to longer wait times? The effects of predicted emergency wait times on the health and volume of patients who present for care," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    2. Christine A. Yee & Kyle Barr & Taeko Minegishi & Austin Frakt & Steven D. Pizer, 2022. "Provider supply and access to primary care," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(7), pages 1296-1316, July.
    3. Huw Dixon & Luigi Siciliani, 2009. "Waiting Time Targets in Healthcare Markets: How Long Are We Waiting?," Discussion Papers 09/05, Department of Economics, University of York.
    4. Dixon, Huw & Siciliani, Luigi, 2009. "Waiting-time targets in the healthcare sector: How long are we waiting?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 1081-1098, December.
    5. Gutacker, Nils & Siciliani, Luigi & Cookson, Richard, 2016. "Waiting time prioritisation: Evidence from England," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 140-151.
    6. Gravelle, Hugh & Schroyen, Fred, 2020. "Optimal hospital payment rules under rationing by waiting," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    7. M. Lippi Bruni & C. Ugolini & R. Verzulli, 2018. "Disentangling the effect of waiting times on hospital choice: Evidence from a panel data analysis," Working Papers wp1118, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    8. Callum Brindley & James Lomas & Luigi Siciliani, 2023. "The effect of hospital spending on waiting times," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(11), pages 2427-2445, November.
    9. Fabrizio Iacone & Steve Martin & Luigi Siciliani & Peter C. Smith, 2012. "Modelling the dynamics of a public health care system: evidence from time-series data," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(23), pages 2955-2968, August.
    10. Peter Sivey, 2012. "The effect of waiting time and distance on hospital choice for English cataract patients," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(4), pages 444-456, April.
    11. Siciliani, Luigi & Stanciole, Anderson & Jacobs, Rowena, 2009. "Do waiting times reduce hospital costs?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 771-780, July.
    12. Frank Windmeijer & Hugh Gravelle & Pierre Hoonhout, 2005. "Waiting lists, waiting times and admissions: an empirical analysis at hospital and general practice level," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(9), pages 971-985, September.
    13. Giuntella, Osea & Nicodemo, Catia & Vargas-Silva, Carlos, 2018. "The effects of immigration on NHS waiting times," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 123-143.
    14. Sá, Luís & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2019. "Dynamic hospital competition under rationing by waiting times," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 260-282.
    15. Sharma, Anurag & Siciliani, Luigi & Harris, Anthony, 2013. "Waiting times and socioeconomic status: Does sample selection matter?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 659-667.
    16. Gravelle, Hugh & Schroyen, Fred, 2016. "Optimal hospital payment rules under rationing by random waiting," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 8/2016, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    17. Fabbri, Daniele & Monfardini, Chiara, 2009. "Rationing the public provision of healthcare in the presence of private supplements: Evidence from the Italian NHS," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 290-304, March.
    18. Yijuan Chen & Juergen Meinecke & Peter Sivey, 2016. "A Theory of Waiting Time Reporting and Quality Signaling," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(11), pages 1355-1371, November.
    19. Brown, Paul & Panattoni, Laura & Cameron, Linda & Knox, Stephanie & Ashton, Toni & Tenbensel, Tim & Windsor, John, 2015. "Hospital sector choice and support for public hospital care in New Zealand: Results from a labeled discrete choice survey," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 118-127.
    20. James Gaughan & Hugh Gravelle & Luigi Siciliani, 2014. "Testing the bed-blocking hypothesis: does higher supply of nursing and care homes reduce delayed hospital discharges?," Working Papers 102cherp, Centre for Health Economics, University of York.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:27:y:2018:i:3:p:e30-e42. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/5749 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.