Publications by PSE researchers

BACKGROUND: Patients’ socioeconomic status on hospitals’ efficiency in controlling for clinical component characteristics may have a role that has few been studied in rehabilitation centers. DESIGN: Because of the national health insurance system, rehabilitation centers are free of charge. To answer whether a patient’s socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with efficiency and performance, we use a counterfactual analysis to get the patient’s SES effect “as if” the patient’s case was identical to whatever hospital. We restrained the data to patients from public acute care units where the decision on rehabilitation sector admission is based on availability, limiting bias by confounding factors. Besides, an analysis of six pathologies led to the same results. SETTING: An exhaustive, detailed administrative database on rehabilitation center stays in France. To define the patients’ socioeconomic status, we use two sources of data: the information collected at the time of the patient’s entry into rehabilitation care and the information collected during the patient’s stay in acute care. This double information avoids possible loss of socio-economic details between the two admissions. POPULATION: Patients recruited were exhaustively admitted over the year 2018 for stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure, or total hip replacement in France in the acute care unit and then in a rehab center. Mainly the elderly population. Information on patients’ demography, comorbidities, and SES are coded due to the reimbursement system. Different dimensions controlling for factors (hospital ownership, patient clinical characteristics, rehabilitation care specificities, medical staff detailed information, and patients’ socioeconomic status), were progressively added to control for any differences in baseline data between the two groups. METHODS: We assess rehabilitation centers’ efficiency by combining selected outcome quality indicators (Physical score improvement, Cognitive score improvement, Mortality, Return-to-home). The specific Providers’ Activity Index is used to get the performance index. CONCLUSIONS: The performance of healthcare institutions is correlated not only to the case mix of their patients but also to the socioeconomic status of the patients admitted. The performance needs to be seen in light of patients’ socioeconomic status.

Background: Assessing frailty from middle age onward offers valuable insights into predicting healthcare expenditures throughout the life cycle. Objectives: This paper examines the use of physical frailty as an indicator of healthcare demand across all age groups. The originality of this work lies in extending the analysis of frailty indicators beyond the typical focus on individuals under 50 years old to include those in mid-life and older. Methods: For this study, we used a database where frailty was measured in 2012 in a sample of individuals aged 15 to over 90. These individuals were tracked for their healthcare expenditures from 2012 to 2016. Results: Among the sample of 6928 individuals, frailty in 2012 resulted in a statistically significant increase in costs at the 5% level for the population aged 15 to 65. We applied multilevel linear regression models with year fixed effects, controlling for demographic factors, education level, precarity, social dimensions, lifestyle factors (e.g., vegetable consumption), physical activity, emotional well-being, and medical history. A Hausman test was conducted to validate the model choice. For mortality rate analysis, Cox models were used. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that physical frailty provides valuable information for understanding its impact on healthcare expenditure. The effect of frailty on mortality is particularly significant for the elderly population. Moreover, frailty is a predictor of healthcare costs not only in older adults but also across the entire life cycle.

To counter the spread of COVID-19, the French government imposed several stringent social and political measures across its entire population. We hereto assess the impact of these political decisions on healthcare access in 2020, focusing on patients who suffered from an ischemic stroke. We divide our analysis into four distinct periods: the pre-COVID-19 pandemic period, the lockdown period, the “in-between” or transitional period, and the shutdown period. Our methodology involves utilizing a retrospective dataset spanning 2019–2020, an exhaustive French national hospital discharge diagnosis database for stroke inpatients, integrated with income information from the reference year of 2019. The results reveal that the most affluent were more likely to forgo medical care, particularly in heavily affected areas. Moreover, the most disadvantaged exhibited even greater reluctance to seek care, especially in the most severely impacted regions. The data suggest a loss of opportunity for less severely affected patients to benefit from healthcares during this lockdown period, regardless of demographic, location, and socioeconomic determinants. Furthermore, our analysis reveals a notable discrepancy in healthcare-seeking behavior, with less affluent patients and seniors (over 75 years old) experiencing slower rates of return to healthcare access compared to pre-pandemic levels. This highlights a persistent gap in healthcare accessibility, particularly among socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, despite the easing of COVID-19 restrictions.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of hospital staffing resources on medical practice in public versus private hospitals. We used exhaustive delivery data from a French district of 11 hospitals over an 11-year period, from 2008 to 2018, including 168,120 observations. We performed multilevel logistic regression models with hospital fixed or random effects, while controlling for factors known to influence obstetric practice. We found that hospital staff ratios of obstetricians and that of midwives affected caesarean rates, but with different effects depending on the hospital sector. In public hospitals, the higher the ratio of obstetricians and that of midwives, the lower the probability of planned caesareans. In private hospitals, the higher the ratio of obstetricians, the greater the probability of planned caesareans. Indeed, in public hospitals, obstetricians and midwives, both salaried employees, do not have financial or organizational incentives to perform more caesareans. In private hospitals, obstetricians, who are independent doctors, may have such incentives. Our results underline the importance of having an adequate supply of health professionals in healthcare facilities to ensure appropriate care, with specific regard to the different characteristics of the public and private sectors.

We explore the competition impact on patient management in healthcare (length of stay and technical procedure's probability to be performed) by difference-indifference , exploiting time variations in the intensity of local competition caused by the French pro-competition reform (2004-2008). Models are estimated with hospital fixed effects to take into account hospital unobserved heterogeneity. We use an exhaustive dataset of in-hospital patients over 35 admitted for a heart attack. We consider the period before the reform from 2001 to 2003 and a period after the reform from 2009 to 2011. Before the reform, there were two types of reimbursement systems. Hospitals from private sector, were paid by fee-for-service. Hospitals from public sector were paid by global budget. They had no current activity's link, and a weak competition incentive. After the DRG-based payment reform, all hospitals compete with each other to attract patients. We find the reform a sizeable positive competition effect on high-technical procedure for the private sector as well as a negative competition effect on the length of stay for public hospitals. However, the overall local competition effect of the reform explained a very marginal part of the explanatory power of the model. Actually, this period is characterised by two contradictory components: a competition effect of the reform and in-patients who are more concentrated. Results suggest that if competition impacted management patient's change, it is through a global competition included in a global trend much more than a local competitive aspect of the reform.

Electronic health records (EHRs) are intended to reduce healthcare costs and improve the quality of care. Nevertheless, usability issues common to EHRs have been identified. In this paper, we investigate these usability issues for social vulnerability codes. Using the acute care EHR and the rehabilitation care EHR databases, hospital stays of 800'000 patients are studied. This article highlights the differences in coding processes between public and private institutions observed when there are different incentives to code. Furthermore, it shows that the differences in coding are not random but depend on the coding strategy. This article emphasises that the reuse of data leads to biases in interpretation. Using the example of social vulnerability alerts policymakers to the need to consider these differences in coding processes when decisions are based on EHR information. Otherwise, this process of coding differences in social vulnerability may exacerbate social inequalities rather than reduce them.

Cet ouvrage relatif à l’économie de la santé et des systèmes de santé aborde les concepts clé de l’économie et leur application au champ de l’économie de la santé. Les concepts économiques sont expliqués et documentésà l’aide de nombreux exemples et exercices corrigés en économie de la santé. L’objectif est de comprendre les politiques publiques en santé. Ce manuel étudie ainsi : les principes de l’intervention de l’État (la demande et les besoins de santé…) ;la notion de bien et son caractère public et privé (spécificités des biens en économie, notion de bien privé et bien public…) ;la construction du système de santé, ses objectifs, son évolution future au regard des nouvelles technologies (comprendre les contraintes de l’offre, les tensions, l’offre de bien sur le marché, les choix de production des produits de santé, le traitement des données, etc.) ;les différents modes de tarification et la place de la concurrence ;la notion de qualité (qualité en soins, etc.) ;une analyse d’autres système de santé (Chine, Etats-Unis…).

This research paper examines changes in patient care management in acute care hospitals between 2001 and 2011. During this time, there were two opposing factors at play: the competition effect of the reform and the policymaker’s decision to reduce public hospitals across France. By studying the trends, it is evident that there has been a significant overall shift in patient care management during this period. This change could be attributed to the global competition effect and the concentration of in-patients in specific public facilities. Through the difference-in-difference method, the study analyzed time variations in the intensity of local competition. It was found that local competition had a negligible impact on patient care management. Additionally, the study revealed that there was a significant positive competition effect on high-technical procedures for the private sector, which is in line with the market segment where private sector hospitals have a leadership position and the pro-competitive reform intensified this position. The study also uncovered a negative competition effect on the length of stay for public hospitals. Prior to the implementation of the DRG-based payment reform, public sector hospitals were paid a global budget. However, after the reform was implemented, they had to shorten the length of stay to increase the number of stays. For-profit hospitals have always been paid based on the number of stays. The results are robust and consistent when alternative measures of local competition are used.

Overall, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a large proportion of uterine fibroids were not managed in the hospital setting. The lockdown period was associated with large reductions in hospital service utilisation, particularly for non-emergency patients. As we observed no shortterm post-lockdown catch-up, two questions arise: What became of these untreated patients? How has their future health been affected? Two hypotheses appear likely. The first is that the woman continued receiving outpatient care, but the therapeutic procedures took place only in hospitals and there were fewer of them. While medical treatment could theoretically have been used, the only available treatment was removed from the market in March 2020 due to the risk of serious drug-induced hepatitis. The second is that of non-recourse to care, or its deferral for more than a year, or even therapeutic abstention because no kind of treatment was available. This strongly suggests a loss of opportunity for these women, with its accompanying risks of hysterectomy, of transfusions, and of impaired quality of life.

All over the world, measures were taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Social distancing not only had a strong influence on mental health, but also on the organization of care systems. It changed existing practices, as we had to rapidly move from face-to-face contact to remote contact with patients. These changes have prompted research into the attitudes of mental healthcare professionals towards telepsychology. Several factors affect these attitudes: at the institutional and organizational level, but also the collective and personal experience of practitioners. This paper is based on an original European survey conducted by the EFPA (European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations) Project Group on eHealth in 2020, which allowed to observe the variability in perceptions of telepsychology between countries and mental healthcare professionals. This study highlights different variables that contributed to the development of attitudes, such as motivations, acquired experience, or training. We found the “feeling of telepresence”—which consists of forgetting to some extent that we are at a distance, in feeling together—and social telepresence in particular as main determinants of the perception and the practice of telepsychology.