Measuring efficiency in US teaching hospitals associated with quality variables

초록

This research compares the efficiency of US teaching and non-teaching hospitals as estimated by using data envelopment analysis. Labour costs, capital costs and other operating expenses are employed as input variables. The research models are divided into two main cases based on different sets of outputs. In both cases, teaching hospitals show higher efficiency scores than non-teaching hospitals. For-profit hospitals show higher efficiency scores than not-for-profit or governmental hospitals. With regard to the size, larger hospitals are associated with higher efficiency scores. Regional variations are detected, but they seem to fade in comparing some regions. This paper addresses the economically important question of what explains heterogeneity in production functions across hospitals by measuring the efficiency of hospitals, including quality variables. The inclusion of quality metrics in efficiency estimates represents an improvement over similar existing studies, since patient outcomes are key to considering welfare implications in the healthcare sector. Copyright © 2018 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

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