Let me inform you of the following research seminar.

Date: May 22(Thu.)  , 2025 
Time:5:20PM -6:50PM
Venue: 11th Floor, Bldg.No.2 Meeting Room B
Speaker: Yingqian Tang (Waseda University) 
Organizer: Takuya Hasebe
Language: English

Title: Does Hospital Bed Capacity Affect Physicians' Treatment Patterns and Care Quality? 
Abstract:
How does hospital bed capacity influence physicians' treatment pattern and quality of care? We address this question by examining the impact of empty beds on healthcare delivery for the oldest-old population in Japan. Using universal administrative medical claims data from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, we exploit a unique natural experiment arising from COVID-19 patients across secondary medical service area (SMAs). This policy provides exogenous variation in bed capacity, enabling us to implement an instrumental variable approach to identify the causal effects. We find that increased bed availability leads to a significant shift from outpatient to inpatient care, with larger inpatient care cost incurred. These effects are particularly pronounced in regions with higher medical resources availability. However, we did not find any change in mortality. Our findings reveal how healthcare infrastructure shapes treatment decisions and have significant policy implications for hospital resource allocation, particularly in aging societies with universal healthcare system.