"One of the most important and vexing issues in health care concerns the cost to improve quality. Unfortunately, quality is difficult to measure and potentially confounded with productivity. Rather than relying on clinical or process measures, we infer quality at hospitals in greater Los Angeles...

Medical utilization, such as a count of hospitalizations, is routinely used as a health proxy for both policy and research purposes. Over time, trends in how medicine is practiced has impacted this relationship, as technological improvements or policy changes have altered hospitalizations at the...

One of the most important and vexing issues in health care concerns the cost to improve quality. Unfortunately, quality is difficult to measure and potentially confounded with productivity. Rather than relying on clinical or process measures, we infer quality at hospitals in greater Los Angeles...