Using small-area variations to inform health care service planning: What do we 'need' to know?

Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice

Volumn 19, Issue 6, 2013, Pages 1054-1059

  Mercuri, Mathew ^a   Birch, Stephen ^a   Gafni, Amiram ^a  

^a MCMASTER UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

health care policy; need; resource allocation; small area variation; use

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK; HEALTH CARE PLANNING; HEALTH CARE POLICY; HEALTH SERVICE; HUMAN; PRIORITY JOURNAL;

HEALTH CARE POLICY; NEED; RESOURCE ALLOCATION; SMALL-AREA VARIATION; USE;

HEALTH CARE RATIONING; HEALTH PLANNING; HEALTH POLICY; HEALTH SERVICES ACCESSIBILITY; HEALTH SERVICES NEEDS AND DEMAND; HUMANS; NEEDS ASSESSMENT; SMALL-AREA ANALYSIS;

EID: 84888338396     PISSN: 13561294     EISSN: 13652753     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/jep.12026     Document Type: Article

References (48)

1. Tanenbaum, S. J., (2013) Reducing variation in health care: the rhetorical politics of a policy idea. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 38 (1), 5-26.
2. Wennberg, J., (2011) Time to tackle unwarranted variations in practice. British Medical Journal, 342, 687-690.
3. Anonymous, (2011) Geographic variation in health care-40 years of 'small-area variation'. Health Policy 104;I. Available at: http://download. journals.elsevierhealth.com/pdfs/journals/0168-8510/PIIS0168851011002612.pdf (last accessed 8 March 2013).
4. Wennberg, J., &, Gittelsohn, A., (1973) Small Area Variations in Health Care Delivery: a population-based health information system can guide planning and regulatory decision-making. Science, 182, 1102-1108.
5. Bevan, G., (2009) The search for a proportionate care law by formula funding in the English NHS. Financial Accountability and Management, 25 (4), 391-410.
6. Rosenthal, T., (2012) Geographic variation in health care. The Annual Review of Medicine, 63, 493-509.
7. Fries, J. F., Koop, C. E., Sokolov, J., Beadle, C. E., &, Wright, D., (1998) Beyond health promotion: reducing need and demand for medical care. Health Affairs, 17 (2), 70-84.
8. Anderson, R. M., (1968) Behavioral Model of Families' Use of Health Services. Research Series No.25. Chicago, IL: Center for Health Administration Studies, University of Chicago.
9. Hart, J. T., (1971) The inverse care law. The Lancet, 297, 405-412.
10. Carr-Hill, R., &, Sheldon, T., (1992) Rationality and the use of formulae in the allocation of resources to health care. Journal of Public Health Medicine, 14 (2), 117-126.
11. Morgan, M., Mays, N., &, Holland, W. W., (1987) Can hospital use be a measure of need for health care? Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 41, 269-274.
12. Birch, S., Eyles, J., &, Newbold, K. B., (1993) Equitable access to health care: methodological extensions to the analysis of physician utilization in Canada. Health Economics, 2, 87-101.
13. Meltzer, J. W., &, Hochstim, J. R., (1970) Reliability and validity of survey data on physical health. Public Health Reports, 85 (12), 1075-1086.
14. Birch, S., Eyles, J., Hurley, J., Hutchison, B., &, Chambers, S., (1993) A needs-based approach to resource allocation in health care. Canadian Public Policy, 19 (1), 68-85.
15. Mooney, G., Hall, J., Donaldson, C., &, Gerrard, K., (1991) Utilisation as a measure of equity: weighing heat? Journal of Health Economics, 10 (4), 475-480.
16. Stepan, A., &, Sommersguter-Reichmann, M., (2005) Monitoring political decision-making and its impact in Austria. Health Economics, 14, S7-S23.
17. Oliver, A., (2005) The English National Health Service: 1979-2005. Health Economics, 14, S75-S99.
18. Hakkinen, U., (2005) The impact of changes in Finland's health care system. Health Economics, 14, S101-S118.
19. Anell, A., (2005) Swedish healthcare under pressure. Health Economics, 14, S237-S254.
20. Worz, M., &, Busse, R., (2005) Analysing the impact of health-care system change in the EU member states-Germany. Health Economics, 14, S133-S149.
21. Wennberg, J. E., (1993) Future directions for small area variations. Medical Care, 31 (5), YS75-YS80.
22. O'Connor, G. T., Quinton, H. B., Travers, N. D., Ramunno, L. D., Dodds, T. A., Marciniak, T. A., &, Wennberg, J. E., (1999) Geographic variation in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction. Journal of the American Medical Association, 281, 627-633.
23. Havranek, E. P., Wolfe, P., Masoudi, F. A., Rathore, S. S., Krumholz, H. M., &, Ordin, D. L., (2004) Provider and hospital characteristics associated with geographic variation in the evaluation and management of elderly patients with heart failure. Archives of Internal Medicine, 164, 1186-1191.
24. Hanley, G. E., Janssen, P. A., &, Greyson, D., (2010) Regional variation in the cesarean delivery and assisted vaginal delivery rates. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 115 (6), 1201-1208.
25. Chen, E., &, Naylor, C. D., (1994) Variation in hospital length of stay for acute myocardial infarction in Ontario, Canada. Medical Care, 32 (5), 420-435.
26. Ugnat, A. M., &, Naylor, C. D., (1994) Regionalized delivery and variable utilization of coronary artery bypass grafting in Ontario from 1981 to 1991. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 151 (5), 575-580.
27. Black, N., Langham, S., &, Petticrew, M., (1995) Coronary revascularization: why do rates vary geographically in the UK? Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 49, 408-412.
28. Wennberg, J., (2002) Unwarranted variations in healthcare delivery: implications for academic medical centres. British Medical Journal, 325, 961-964.
29. Paul-Shaheen, P., Clark, J. D., &, Williams, D., (1987) Small area analysis: a review and analysis of the North American literature. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 12 (4), 741-809.
30. Mercuri, M., &, Gafni, A., (2011) Medical practice variations: what the literature tells us (or does not) about what are warranted and unwarranted variations. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 17, 671-677.
31. Wennberg, J. E., (1982) Professional uncertainty and the problem of supplier-induced demand. Social Science and Medicine, 16 (7), 811-824.
32. Wennberg, J. E., (1984) Dealing with medical practice variations: a proposal for action. Health Affairs, 4, 6-32.
33. Wennberg, J. E., (1987) Population illness rates do not explain population hospitalization rates: a comment on Mark Blumberg's thesis that morbidity adjusters are needed to interpret small area variations. Medical Care, 25 (4), 354-359.
34. Long, M. J., (2001) An explanatory model of medical practice variation: a physician resource demand perspective. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 8 (2), 167-174.
35. Blumberg, M. S., (1987) Inter-area variations in age-adjusted health status. Medical Care, 25 (4), 340-353.
36. Wennberg, D. E., &, Wennberg, J. E., (2003) Addressing variations: is there hope for the future? Health Affairs W3-614-617.
37. Hack, M., Flannery, D. J., Schluchter, M., Cartar, L., Borawski, E., &, Klein, N., (2002) Outcomes in young adulthood for very-low-birth-weight infants. The New England Journal of Medicine, 346 (3), 149-157.
38. Hack, M., Taylor, H. G., Drotar, D., Schluchter, M., Carter, L., Andreias, L., Wilson-Costello, D., &, Klein, N., (2005) Chronic conditions, functional limitations, and special health care needs of school-aged children born with extremely low-birth-weight in the 1990s. Journal of the American Medical Association, 294 (3), 318-325.
39. Lewit, E. M., Schuurmann Baker, L., Corman, H., &, Shiono, P. H., (1995) The direct cost of low birth weight. The Future of Children, 5 (1), 35-56.
40. Feinstein, L., &, Duckworth, K., (2006) Development in the Early Years, Centre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning, Research Report 20.
41. Eyles, J., &, Birch, S., (1993) A population needs-based approach to health-care resource allocation and planning in Ontario: a link between policy goals and practice? Canadian Journal of Public Health, 84 (2), 112-117.
42. Field, K., (2000) Measuring the need for primary health care: an index of relative disadvantage. Applied Geography, 20, 305-332.
43. Marmot, M., Allen, J., Goldblatt, P., Boyce, T., McNeish, D., Grady, M., &, Geddes, I., (2010) Fair society, healthy lives: the marmot review. Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England post 2010. Available at: http://www.instituteofhealthequity.org/projects/fair-society-healthy-lives-the- marmot-review (last accessed 28 January 2013).
44. LeGrand, J., (1978) The distribution of public expenditure: the case of health care. Economica, 45 (178), 125-142.
45. Collins, E., &, Klein, R., (1980) Equity and the NHS: self reported morbidity, access and primary care. British Medical Journal, 281, 1111-1115.
46. O'Donnell, O., &, Propper, C., (1991) Equity and the distribution of UK National Health Service resources. Journal of Health Economics, 10, 1-19.
47. Birch, S., &, Gafni, A., (2003) Economics and the evaluation of health care programmes: generalisability of results. Health Policy, 64 (2), 207-219.
48. Natarajan, M. K., Gafni, A., &, Yusuf, S., (2005) Determining optimal population rates of cardiac catheterization: a phantom alternative? Canadian Medical Association Journal, 173 (1), 49-52.