Low Staffing in the Maternity Ward: Keep Calm and Call the Surgeon

Gabriel Facchini

Working Papers from Department of Applied Economics at Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona

Abstract: This paper examines how workload affects the provision of care in a large but understudied segment of the healthcare sector – maternity wards. I use detailed patient-level administrative data on childbirth, and exploit quasi-random assignment of unscheduled patients to different staffing ratios. I find that patients who at admission observe a higher ratio of patients-to-midwives are more likely to receive a C-section. I show that this result is not attributable to patients’ differential sorting across workload levels. Instead, I find evidence that C-sections are used to alleviate midwives’ workload -they are faster than vaginal births and performed by physicians. I also exploit patient’s civil status to determine whether the effect varies with patient’s bargaining power -single women are on average more likely to be alone in the delivery room. Consistent with induced demand, only single patients are more likely to receive a C-section when admitted at high workload levels.

Keywords: cesarean section; workload; midwives; physician induced demand; bargaining power (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D82 H42 H51 I18 J13 J16 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2020-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uab:wprdea:wpdea2009

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