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Table 1 Description of included articles (n = 22)

From: Defining safety net hospitals in the health services research literature: a systematic review and critical appraisal

Variables

Frequency (%)

Publication Year

 2009–2012

6 (27%)

 2013–2015

7 (32%)

 2016–2018

9 (41%)

Journal Type

 Health Services journals

10 (45%)

 Policy journals

7 (32%)

 Clinical journals

5 (23%)

Data Sourcea

 American Hospital Association (AHA)

13 (59%)

 Medicare Cost Reports

6 (27%)

 Health Care Utilization Project (HCUP) and other inpatient discharge databases

5 (23%)

 National Inpatient Sample (NIS)

2 (9%)

 Virginia Health Information discharge data

1 (5%)

 CA Office of Statewide health planning and development (OSHPD)

1 (5%)

 Agency for Healthcare Research Socioeconomic Status Index

1 (5%)

 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Impact File

1 (5%)

Five category classification systema

 Medicaid Caseload

13 (59%)

 Disproportionate Share (DSH) payments

8 (36%)

 Uncompensated care

7 (32%)

 Facility characteristics

5 (23%)

 Patient case mix

2 (9%)

Outcome of focus among included studiesa

 Quality

17 (77%)

 Cost

8 (36%)

 Access

2 (9%)

Inclusion of a source or rationale for SNH definition

 Accompanying reference was cited

17 (77%)

 Definition choice was justified with supporting text

12 (55%)

 Authors noted the variety of SNH definitions in the literature.

11 (50%)

  1. aSome articles included more than one definition of SNH, more than one dataset, and/or focused on more than one outcome. Thus, sums do not add up to 100%