OBJECTIVE: To understand differences in length of stay for @entity565 @entity1 between New York State and Pennsylvania across @entity1 's and general hospitals in order to better guide policy. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: All pediatric admissions for @entity565 in the states of Pennsylvania and New York using claims data obtained from each state for the years 1996-1998, n = 38,310. STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective cohort design to model length of stay (LOS), the probability of prolonged stay, conditional length of stay (CLOS or the LOS after stay is prolonged), and the probability of readmission, controlling for @entity1 factors, state, location and hospital type. ANALYTIC METHODS: Logit models were used to estimate the probability of prolonged stay and readmission. The LOS and the CLOS were estimated with Cox regression. Model variables included comorbidities, income, race, distance from hospital, and insurance type. Prolonged stay was based on a Hollander-Proschan "New-Worse-Than-Used" test, corresponding to a three-day stay. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The LOS was longer in New York than Pennsylvania, and the probabilities of prolonged stay and readmission were much higher in New York than Pennsylvania. However, once an admission was prolonged, there were no differences in CLOS between states (when readmissions were not added to the LOS calculation). In both states, @entity1 's hospitals and general hospitals had similar adjusted LOS. CONCLUSIONS: Management of @entity565 appears more efficient in Pennsylvania than New York: Less severe @entity1 are discharged faster in Pennsylvania than New York; once discharged, @entity1 are less likely to be readmitted in Pennsylvania than New York. However, once a stay is prolonged, there is little difference between New York and Pennsylvania, suggesting medical care for severely ill @entity1 is similar across states. Differences between @entity1 's and general hospitals were small as compared to differences between states. We conclude that policy initiatives in New York, and other states, should focus their efforts on improving the care provided to less severe @entity1 in order to help reduce overall length of stay.

Length of stay, conditional length of stay, and prolonged stay in pediatric XXXX .

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['children', 'patients', 'patient'] @entity565 :: ('MESH:D001249', 'Disease') :: ['asthma']
@entity565 :: (MESH:D001249,Disease) :: ['asthma']
