In the 1950s, the median length of decisions was around 2,000 words.
In fact, that extreme length of decision-making is at the heart of why I have long said that healthcare is where tech startups go to die — super-long decision processes naturally favor legacy vendors who are milking products that may be 10 or more years old.
The lengths of decisions, including the majority opinion and all separate opinions, also set a record, at 8,265 words.
In order to formally analyze the problem lengthy proceedings generate, assume that the parties discount future returns with the factor δ∈ 0,1) (this could be e.g. the parties' financial costs) and that the length of the decision proceedings by the third party is denoted by l.
Different types of insurance provide different constraints and incentives that influence the length of stay decision.
In hospital outcome variables such as duration of mechanical ventilation, weaning from mechanical ventilation, tracheostomy during ICU stay, ICU length of stay, decision to withdraw and/or withhold life support, and ICU mortality were assessed.
During their ICU stay, the SOFA score, the number of organ failures, shock and need for ventilation or renal dialysis were sequentially reassessed at Day 3 and Day 7. The duration of mechanical ventilation, the ICU and hospital length of stay, decision to activate care withdrawal and the discharge destination, were also recorded.
Physicians treating patients with an HMO insurance face similar constraints and incentives, leading to similar length of stay decisions.
Furthermore, basic descriptions of 'assessment as usual' will be recorded in the pro-forma (such as number and length of appointments, decision-making and medication).
In this study we examined the influence of type of insurance and the influence of managed care in particular, on the length of stay decisions physicians make and on variation in medical practice.
