A power law distribution in patients’ lengths of stay in hospital

A. Hellervik and G.J. Rodgers

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2007, vol. 379, issue 1, 235-240

Abstract: The distribution of patients’ lengths of stay in English hospitals is measured by using routinely collected data from 11 years. It is found to be well approximated by a power law distribution spanning over more than three decades. To explain this observation, a theoretical resource allocation model is presented. It is based on iterative long-term scheduling of hospital beds, and its main assumption is that future beds are allocated preferentially. This represents a situation where different parts of the health care system compete for resources, with bargaining powers proportional to current resource levels.

Keywords: Health care; Power law distributions; Preferential attachment; Resource competition; Rate equation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:379:y:2007:i:1:p:235-240

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2006.12.045

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