ABSTRACT
Objective To assess the efficiency of central urban and rural hospitals in the 7 cities, counties and districts under the jurisdiction of Hangzhou City and the status of the medical markets so as to provide theoretical basis for the promotion of decentralized medical markets. Methods On the basis of defining the scope of a medical market, the HHI values of the medical markets in places where 37 hospitals in Hangzhou were located was calculated, the average efficiency of the various hospitals was measured by means of DEA, and an analysis was made on the correlation between the average efficiency and the HHI values. Results The central urban and rural medical markets in the various places surveyed, whose HHI values were all greater than 1 800, belonged to markets of monopolistic competition. Of the 37 hospitals, there were 11 whose relative efficiency reached 100% and another 11 whose relative efficiency was less than 60%. The greater the monopoly of a medical market, the lower the average efficiency of its hospitals. Conclusion Establishing competitive markets with low market concentration is an effective way of enhancing overall hospital efficiency.