Efficiency measurement in public hospitals: Public maternity hospitals

Thesis Type: Postgraduate

Institution Of The Thesis: Hacettepe University, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Turkey

Thesis Supervisor: Mustafa Kemal Öktem

Approval Date: 2006

Thesis Language: Turkish

Open Archive Collection: AVESIS Open Access Collection

Abstract:

This study aims to point out the technical efficiency in some selected public hospitals. In designing the study a variety of approaches for handling output and input diversity were considered. Ultimately an innovative technique that simultaneously takes into account multiple inputs and outputs in the computation of technical efficiency was adopted for use in this study. In this thesis we evaluate Data Envelopment Analysis in application to public maternity hospitals which provide secondary health care and are characterized by multiple outputs and inputs and which are to need to improved methods for measuring efficiency. The study begins by defining efficiency and the need for efficiency measures for hospitals. Alternative efficiency measurement techniques, including ratio analysis and statistical regression analysis, are compared with DEA to review the theoretical strengths and limitations of these methodologies. A set of maternity hospitals of Ministry of Health of Turkey is evaluated using DEA. The findings are discussed in terms of the theoretical implications for the concept of organizational slack and the implications for hospital management. Keywords: DEA, public hospital, maternity, efficiency, management.