ArticleNature human behaviour2026
Contract incentives and behaviours of medical consultants in Ireland.
Article in Nature human behaviour, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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Abstract
In publicly funded healthcare systems that also allow private hospital treatment, there is often a concern that consultants might prioritize private patients. Here we examine how a 2014 reform in Ireland, which allowed public hospitals to accommodate private patients in public wards, affected consultant behaviours and patient outcomes. Using nationwide inpatient discharge data from 2009 to 2015 (2.3 million observations) and applying Little's Law with a difference-in-differences method, we find no evidence that the share of private patients increased. We attribute this pattern to contracts requiring consultants to treat an additional three or four public patients for each treated private patient. The reform incentivized consultants to treat more public patients by shortening the lengths of stay for both public and private patients. However, such efficiency gains may come at the expense of care quality for public patients.
Identifiers
42834080What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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