Table 2

Patients’ characteristics by quality quartile*

Patients’ characteristics	Overall	Lowest quality	Quartile 2	Quartile 3	Highest quality	P value
Patients, n	183 334	57 099	53 697	39 596	32 942
Age						<0.0001
<60	18.97	19.90	17.53	19.43	19.14
60–70	23.1	23.10	23.17	22.39	23.80
70–80	34.76	34.58	35.77	34.01	34.32
>80	23.18	22.42	23.52	24.16	22.74
Primary payer status						<0.0001
Socialised medicine	4.18	3.59	2.92	6.34	4.65
Basic medical insurance	79.43	80.62	78.77	79.75	78.08
Other insurance types	7.14	6.49	9.74	5.75	5.7
Self-paying	9.25	9.3	8.57	8.16	11.57
Patterns of admission						<0.0001
Emergency	33.11	31.05	33.63	34.34	34.35
Outpatient	66.89	68.95	66.37	65.66	65.65
Ejection fraction						<0.0001
CHFrEF	17.84	7.53	17.39	21.71	31.78
CHFpEF	26.21	15.51	28.89	30.12	35.71
CHFmrEF	10.51	5.29	10.27	13.43	16.45
Unrecorded	45.44	71.67	43.45	34.74	16.05
NYHA classification						<0.0001
Grade I	0.21	0.17	0.24	0.22	0.24
Grade II	3.08	3.17	3	3.62	2.42
Grade III	32.4	13.35	39.19	36.9	48.96
Grade IV	23.55	9.61	20.6	34.54	39.32
Unrecorded	40.76	73.71	36.98	24.73	9.06
Year						<0.0001
2011	9.32	9.29	9.42	10.58	7.67
2012	15.12	15.01	15.54	17.99	11.19
2013	19.03	18.28	15.24	22.73	22.06
2014	16.51	14.71	16.84	18.13	17.14
2015	15.14	17.06	16.26	9.95	16.2
2016	16.64	18.53	16.39	13.48	17.56
2017	8.25	7.11	10.31	7.14	8.19
Coexisting condition
Diabetes mellitus	9.46	2.33	9.51	10.59	20.37	<0.0001
Myocardial infarction	9.02	2.07	8.7	9.48	21.05	<0.0001
Pneumonia	6.7	1.22	7.37	7.64	13.97	<0.0001
Coronary heart disease	6.66	1.42	4.82	9.5	15.31	<0.0001
Renal failure	4.11	0.85	4.4	4.34	8.98	<0.0001
COPD	5	1.2	5.78	5.24	10.03	<0.0001
Arrhythmia	5.82	1.46	5.93	5.44	13.68	<0.0001
Haematological disease	9.36	2.13	9.62	8.74	22.35	<0.0001
Cerebrovascular disease	4.04	0.88	4.33	3.82	9.33	<0.0001
Rheumatic valvular heart disease	3.55	0.7	3.36	4.21	8	<0.0001
Congestive heart failure	18.55	4.02	18.28	21.17	41	<0.0001
In-hospital mortality	1.05	0.82	1.29	1.23	0.84	<0.0001
Treatment outcome						<0.0001
Unimproved	30.92	62.08	25.91	13.47	6.07
Improved	69.08	37.92	74.09	86.53	93.93
Medical costs, median (¥)	8511	8633	8548	8392	8411	<0.0001
LOS, median, day	9	9	9	10	9	<0.0001

*Patients are divided into quartiles based on hospital ranks sorted by hospital process composite performance scores. The first quartile was regarded as the lowest quality group and the fourth quartile was regarded as the highest quality group. All percentages are based on non-missing values.
CHFmrEF, congestive heart failure with mid-range ejection fraction; CHFpEF, congestive heart failure with preserved ejection fraction; CHFrEF, congestive heart failure with reduced ejection fraction; COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; LOS, length of stay; NYHA, New York Heart Association.