Objectives This study compares the characteristics and performance of spine specialty hospitals versus other types of hospitals for inpatients with spinal diseases in South Korea. We also assessed the effect of the government's specialty hospital designation on hospital operating efficiency.

Setting We used data of 823 hospitals including 17 spine specialty hospitals in Korea.

Participants All spine disease-related inpatient claims nationwide (N=645 449) during 2010–2012.

Interventions No interventions were made.

Outcome measures Using a multilevel generalised estimating equation and multilevel modelling, this study compared inpatient charges, length of stay (LOS), readmission within 30 days of discharge and in-hospital death within 30 days of admission in spine specialty versus other types of hospitals.

Results Spine specialty hospitals had higher inpatient charges per day (27.4%) and a shorter LOS (23.5%), but per case charges were similar after adjusting for patient-level and hospital-level confounders. After government designation, spine specialty hospitals had 8.8% lower per case charges, which was derived by reduced per day charge (7.6%) and shorter LOS (1.0%). Rates of readmission also were lower in spine specialty hospitals (OR=0.796). Patient-level and hospital-level factors both played important roles in determining outcome measures.

Conclusions Spine specialty hospitals had higher per day inpatient charges but a much shorter LOS than other types of hospitals due to their specialty volume and experience. In addition, their readmission rate was lower. Spine specialty hospitals also endeavoured to be more efficient after governmental ‘specialty’ designation.