Efficiency indicators versus forntier methods: an empirical investigation of italian public hospitals

Efficiency has a key-role in the measurement of the impact of the National Health Service (NHS) reforms. We investigate the issue of inefficiency in health sector and provide empirical evidence derived from Italian public hospitals. Despite the importance of efficiency measurement in health care ser...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inStatistica (Bologna) Vol. 67; no. 3; pp. 263 - 279
Main Authors Lorenzo Clementi, Antonello Maruotti
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published University of Bologna 01.05.2013
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Summary:Efficiency has a key-role in the measurement of the impact of the National Health Service (NHS) reforms. We investigate the issue of inefficiency in health sector and provide empirical evidence derived from Italian public hospitals. Despite the importance of efficiency measurement in health care services, only recently advanced econometric methods have been applied to hospital data. We provide a synoptic survey of few empirical analyses of efficiency measurement in health care services. An estimate of the cost efficiency level in Italian public hospitals during 2001-2003 is obtained through a sample. We propose an efficiency indicator and provide cost frontiers for such hospitals, using stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) for longitudinal data.
ISSN:0390-590X
1973-2201
DOI:10.6092/issn.1973-2201/3509