Moreover, the two-part model provided two p-values, the first referring to differences in the probability of service use, and the second referring to cost differences among service users.
Owing to the stepwise calculation, approach 2 provides two p-values, the first referring to differences in the probability of service use (part 1), and the second referring to expenditure differences among service users (part 2).
According to the authors' first definition, given a limited capacity for a single resource C, the blocking probability of service i, P b,i, can be described as in Equation (1).
Regarding medical specialists, the probability of service utilization and costs per user pointed in opposite directions.
Table 3 illustrates how differences in per capita expenditures came about: first, except for rehabilitation, the probability of service use was significantly increased in dementia patients (p1).
The predicted probability of service utilisation associated with each subject,, is derived from the following equation: (3) where x's are covariables, and 's their corresponding parameter estimates.
In line with our study, Mosier et al. found that Canadian women's probability of service use for mental health reasons decreased with age [ 30].
The other variables in our study were those that determine the probability of service use according to Andersen and Newman, since the allocation of cards was intended to increase this probability.
[see Additional File 1: Supplementary Table S7 for details] We assumed that the age-sex-specific probability of service utilisation would remain constant as per the base year of 2004.
In this paper, hospital appointment systems with multiple classes of patients are considered where different classes of patients may vary in punctuality, no-show probabilities, mean service times and service time variability.
