Efficiency characteristics and changes in tertiary general hospitals / 中国卫生政策研究

ABSTRACT

Objective: To analyze the efficiency characteristics and trend of tertiary general public hospitals from both static and dynamic perspectives. Methods: After collecting data of personnel, equipment, assets, health services and other inputs-output indicators from 50 tertiary public hospitals from 2006 to 2012 , this paper uses C2 R-DEA and BC2-DEA models, as well as Malmquist Index model to build suitable analysis model. Results:About 10%~12% of the sample hospitals are in a relatively effective operational state, and the mean values of allocation effi-ciency and scale efficiency are 0. 956 and 0. 943, respectively, which are close to the efficient frontier. The mean values of pure technical efficiency, technical efficiency, cost efficiency and overall efficiency are 0. 796, 0. 784, 0. 714 and 0. 714, respectively, which are relatively poor compared with the efficiency frontier. Moreover, the number of hospitals that are in the state of diminishing returns to scale increased from 7 . 69% to 26 . 31%, while the number of hospitals that are in the state of increasing returns to scale decreased from 80. 77% to 58. 34%. The changes in techno-logical progress, Malmquist productivity index, technical efficiency index, pure technical efficiency index and scale effi-ciency index remained a relatively stable consistency, and showed continuous improvement and steady development trend. Conclusion:Tertiary general public hospitals are facing the transformation of driving force for development and incentive mechanisms. This needs not only to change the management concept and development mode of the hospitals, but also to build evaluation standards of optimum efficiency that are relevant to the structure, process and outcome, in order to pro-mote the transformation of hospital governance and development model that includes the functions of government.