The LACE index and risk factors of 14-day versus 30-day readmissions in children.

Risk factors for readmissions in children differ from those in adults, yet little is known about whether the LACE index (Length of stay, Acute admission, Charlson comorbidity index, Emergency department visits in the previous 6 months) developed for adults retains its validity when applied to the prediction of readmissions in children or within shorter intervals of time after discharge. In this retrospective cohort analysis of 4256 patients aged ≤18 years hospitalized at one academic medical center in Taiwan in 2019, we first evaluated the performance of a LACE index model and the three other multivariate logistic regression models in their predictions of hospital readmissions in children using the same time interval of 30 days. We then used multinomial logistic regression to analyze the characteristics and risk factors for readmissions that occur in the first 14 days with those that occur between 15 and 30 days after discharge.

Early prediction of 30- and 14-day all-cause unplanned readmissions.

Background: An unplanned readmission is a dual metric for both the cost and quality of medical care.

Methods: We employed the random forest (RF) method to build a prediction model using a large dataset from patients' electronic health records (EHRs) from a medical center in Taiwan. The discrimination abilities between the RF and regression-based models were compared using the areas under the ROC curves (AUROC).

Factors that influence infertile couples' selection of reproductive medicine centers---A cross-sectional questionnaire study.

Objective: The number of infertile women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles has increased annually. Due to this competitive environment, we designed a questionnaire and aimed to investigate factors affecting the choice of reproductive medicine center among infertile couples.

Materials And Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study that analyzed questionnaires provided by the reproductive medicine center of the Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital from January 2018 to June 2018.

Constructing "behavioral" comparison groups: A difference-in-difference analysis of the effect of copayment based on the patient's price elasticity.

It is well known that the differences-in-differences (DD) estimator is based on the assumption that in the absence of treatment, the average outcomes for the treated group and the control group will follow a common trend over time. That can be problematic, especially when the selection for the treatment is influenced by the individual's unobserved behavior correlating with the medical utilization. The aim of this study was to develop an index for controlling a patient's unobserved heterogeneous response to reform, in order to improve the comparability of treatment assignment.

Agency problems in hospitals participating in self-management project under global budget system in Taiwan.

Objective: The main purposes of this study are to clarify the agency problems in the hospitals participating in self-management project within the context of Global Budgeting Payment System regulated by Taiwan government, and also to provide some suggestions for hospital administrator and health policy maker in reducing the waste of healthcare resources resulting from agency problems.

Method: For the purposes above, this study examines the relationships between two agency problems (ex ante moral hazard and ex post moral hazard) aroused among the hospitals and Bureau of National Health Insurance in Taiwan's health care sector. This study empirically tested the theoretical model at organization level.

Establishment of an integrated management model for the secondary prevention of cervical cancer - an experience in taiwan hospital.

In the present study, secondary data analysis was utilized to evaluate the efficiency of the integrated management model (IMM) on the Pap smear test for screening of women's uterine cervical cancer. The data of female patients receiving a Pap smear test were collected both before (from July to December, 2006) and after (from January to June, 2007) introducing the IMM in a regional hospital in Tainan. The result revealed an increment of participation rate from 5.