Empirical research on hospital relative efficiency with data envelopment analysis

Objective To explore analysis method for the assessment of operation efficiency of large hospital and the factors affecting the development of hospital operation and to provide a theoretical basis for scientific management of hospitals.Methods Sixteen grade 3 class A hospitals in Liaoning province were selected as decision-making unit and C2R and BC2 model in data envelopment analysis(DEA)were adopted in the study.Results The average operation efficiency value of the 16 hospitals was 0.96.Based on the results of DEA,10 hospitals(62.5%)were evaluated as effective operation and 6 hospitals(37.5%)as ineffective operation.Of the 6 hospitals classified as ineffective operation,2 hospitals(12.5%)showed decreased returns to scale and 4 hospitals(25.0%)showed increased returns to scale.Totally 4 091 staff and 2 049 beds could be reduced for the ineffective operation hospitals if the operation of the hospitals could be effective according the criteria of DEA.Conclusion DEA method is scientific and effective in evaluating relative operation efficiency of hospitals,and it could be adopted to analyze influencing factors of relative efficiency accurately and to provide quantitative information to hospital administrators.