Components of the offering/acceptance variance and impact of entering EDs’ characteristics in the regression analysis.

*The variance partition coefficient (VPC) indicates the proportion of the total variance (the sum of 1st level (days) and 2nd level (EDs) variances) that it is accounted for by the 2nd level variance. The VPC was calculated using the equation VPCh = σ2h/(σ2h +3.29), where σ2h represents the ED level variance (Snijders, T. and Bosker, R. [1999]. Multilevel Analysis. Sage).