Analysis of the operational efficiency trends of tertiary public general hospitals in Shanghai / 中华医院管理杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective Analysis of the operational efficiency trends of and problems with the public tertiary hospitals. Methods A retrospective statistics analyzed the indicators of ten public tertiary general hospitals in Shanghai during 1997-2006. Results The outpatients number per capita for the hospital staff maintains an rising trend, averaging 12.2% per year prior to year 2000; The yearly-averaged total assets turnover of the hospitals decreases from 0.89 in 1997 to 0.69 in 2003, then maintaining unchanged; The yearly-averaged receivables turnover began to fall since 1999, falling from 21.4 in 1999 to 9.7 in 2006; hospital income growth fluctuated during the years, yet with a high level of total assets growth; given the fluctuations in asset-liability ratio, such ratio has been growing slowly, maintaining at 20 % since 2004. Conclusion Problems are found with the operational efficiency of these public tertiary general hospitals as follows the rapid growth of productivity in such hospitals finds no concurrent improvements in assets related indicators. Against a low income ratio, high debt ratio will plague hospital development to some extent.