ATLANTA — In the baseball version of death by a thousand cuts, the Atlanta Braves culminated a collapse of epic proportions Wednesday with a 4-3 loss in 13 innings to the Philadelphia Phillies.
The season-opening bagel grew to historic proportions Tuesday with a 112-106 loss to Phoenix that left both players and fans wandering off into the darkness shaking their heads.
First, a considerable proportion of day care attendees were not enrolled in the study and the information about exposure to pneumococci within day care is therefore not complete.
Proportion of day covered (PDC) was calculated, with an adherence cut-off ≥ 80%.
Results Length of stay fell more quickly and the proportion of day cases increased more quickly where payment by results was implemented, suggesting a reduction in the unit costs of care associated with payment by results.
Adaptive resilience: Reduction of Unit costs (salaries, wages, fees) Increase in system productivity (Average length of stay, proportion of day cases in acute care) Reduction in staffing with no commensurate reduction in service.
Most of our tests on mean length of stay and the proportion of day case activity in total elective admissions are consistent with a reduction in unit costs associated with introduction of the tariff.
Abbreviations: HI-CRBC (Haemagglutination inhibition test using chicken red blood cells), HI-HRBC (Haemagglutination inhibition test using horse red blood cells), VN (Virus neutralisation test), N (number), Prop (proportion), dpi (day post inoculation), CI (confidence interval).
The results showing reductions in length of stay and increases in the proportion of day case activity provide support for the anticipated effects of the payment by results policy on hospitals' costs.
Main outcome measures Changes in length of stay and proportion of day case admissions as a proxy for unit cost; growth in number of spells to measure increases in output; and changes in in-hospital mortality, 30 day post-surgical mortality, and emergency readmission after treatment for hip fracture as measures of impact on quality of care.
