1. In judging the efficiency of hospitals would it be sufficient to just compare the cost per patient day, with the lowest cost hospital being the most efficient? Explain.

2. What are boutique hospitals and why are they different than a full-service hospital in how they compete in the market?

3. What is the major cause of the trend toward multi-hospital chains?

4. What factors do you think most contribute to the declining occupancy rates of U.S. hospitals over the past decade? (You should think both of technological change and financial incentives.) Data show that occupancy rates have begun to stabilize in recent years, despite the continuing forces for declining use of the inpatient hospital facility. To what do you attribute this phenomenon?

5. Does the not-for-profit status of most U.S. hospitals make it more or less likely that any single hospital will close its doors in the face of falling demand? Why?

6. If hospitals began to affiliate within regions, would you expect that "unnecessary duplication of facilities" would increase, decrease, or stay the same? Why?