Robert H. Patrick

Cost of Hospital-Acquired Infection

Abstract The authors assessed the costs of hospital-acquired infections using rigorous econometric methods on publicly available data, controlling for the interdependency of length of stay and the incidence of hospital acquired infection, and estimated the cost shares of different payers. They developed a system of equations involving length of stay, incidence of infection, and the total hospital care cost to be estimated using simultaneous equations system. The main data came from the State of New Jersey UB 92 for 2004, complimented with data from the Annual Survey of Hospitals by the American Hospital Association and the Medicare Cost Report of 2004. The authors estimated that an incidence of hospital acquired infection increases the hospital care cost of a patient by

Comparing tests of the theory of exhaustible resources

10,375 and it increases the length of stay by 3.30 days, and that a disproportionately higher portion of the cost is attributable to Medicare. They conclude that reliable cost estimates of hospital-acquired infections can be made using publicly available data. Their estimate shows a much larger aggregate cost of

Peak-Load Pricing with Continuous and Interdependent Demand

16.6 billion as opposed to

Rate structure effects and regression parameter instability across time-of-use electricity pricing experiments

5 billion reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but much less than

Hospital length of stay and probability of acquiring infection

29 billion as reported elsewhere in the literature.

Industry Structure and Regulation in the England and Wales Electricity Market

Abstract The empirical relevance of Hotelling’s exhaustible resource theory has been tested with primarily negative results. Tests have been performed on various resources, at different levels of aggregation, with varying market structures, and over different time periods. Consequently, it is difficult to draw any general conclusions concerning the theory’s applicability in explaining producer behavior, given the assumptions and restrictions implicit in the data and tests. This paper compares test results when the implicit restrictions associated with the data are removed. Employing a single data set we compare the results for four published tests. Even with this uniform data set, two approaches reject the theory while two do not.

Estimating regional benefits of reducing targeted pollutants: an application to agricultural effects on water quality and the value of recreational fishing

Issues concerning time-of-use (TOU) pricing with continuous and interdependent demand are examined in a context where increasing marginal costs of production, as opposed to capacity constraints, provide the major incentive for flattening the load curve. The analysis develops the underlying consumer preferences sufficient to insure a continuously varying load curve and generalizes previous considerations of the peak load pricing problem by simultaneously considering continuous and interdependent demand in determining optimal prices and pricing period lengths. A profit incentive for TOU pricing as a form of price discrimination is revealed, which is tempered as substitution across pricing periods allows limited intertemporal arbitrage. The profit incentive leads a price-regulated firm, ceteris paribus, to choose a peak pricing period longer than the social optimum.

A hybrid economic-engineering model for natural gas production

Abstract Using a pool of data from eleven time-of-use (TOU) pricing experiments, a consumer demand model is estimated, and simple but statistically exact tests are performed for rate structure parameter instability across these experiments. Rate structure effects considered in the analyses concern the length of time (during the demand cycle) that the respective prices are charged, intermediate pricing periods, demand versus energy charges, and voluntary versus mandatory participation. Pricing period length and energy charges are found to have significant effects but the significance of others rate structure effects are generally mixed. The hypotheses of parameter instability are accepted, in a number of cases, across experiments but rejected through time.

Optimal depreciation, payments to capital, and natural monopoly regulation

Purpose – Hospital‐acquired infection (HAI) poses important health and financial problems for society. Understanding the causes of infection in hospital care is strategically important for hospital administration for formulating effective infection control programs. The purpose of this paper is to show that hospital length of stay (LOS) and the probability of developing an infection are interdependent.Design/methodology/approach – A two‐equation model was specified for hospital LOS and the incidence of infection. Using the patient‐level data of hospital discharge in the State of New Jersey merged with other data, the parameters of the two equations were estimated using a simultaneous estimation method.Findings – It was found that extending the LOS by one day increases the probability of catching an infection by 1.37 percent and the onset of infection increases average LOS by 9.32 days. The estimation indicates that HAI elongates LOS increasing the cost of a hospital stay.Research limitations/implications ...

Real-Time Pricing and Demand Side Participation in Restructured Electricity Markets

March 31, 1990 marked the vesting and operational beginning of an economically restructured electric utility industry in the United Kingdom. Almost all wholesale purchases of electricity in England and Wales are legally mandated to take place through a spot market which sets day-ahead prices for all half-hour periods during the next day. These prices are calculated from the day-ahead half-hourly supply schedules submitted by all generators serving the market and a forecast of the market-level demand for each half-hour period during the following day. Although there have been a number revisions in regulatory rules to control the suspected exercise of market power by generators during this evolving industry restructuring, the England and Wales (E&W) market has been promoted as the model for liberalizing the electricity generation industry in many regions of the United States and worldwide. An example is a plan the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved in late December of 1995 (and revised in late Spring of 1996), which calls for establishing an electricity spot market or “Poolco” similar to the E&W electricity market, through which all generators would sell power to electricity retailers and large customers in California.