Title: The efficiency of hospitals before and after the implementation of health system reform plan: a case study of Iran

Authors: Bahram Nabilou; Alireza Ghorbani; Siamak Aghlmand; Parviz Salem Safi; Hasan Yusefzadeh

Addresses: Department of Health Economics and Management, Health School, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran Fax: +98-4432770047 ' Department of Public Health, School of Health, Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, Sabzevar, Iran Fax: +98-5144018424 ' Department of Health Economics and Management, Health School, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran Fax: +98-4432770047 ' Department of Public Health, Health School, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran Fax: +98-4432770047 ' Department of Health Economics and Management, Health School, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran Fax: +98-4432770047

Abstract: Hospitals need to regularly assess their performance to improve the quality of their services. This study was aimed to investigate the status of hospitals of Urmia University of Medical Sciences before and after the implementation of the health system reform plan, by stochastic frontier analysis method. This was a descriptive-analytic study performed in 24 hospitals affiliated with Urmia University of Medical Sciences before and after the implementation of the health system reform plan during the years 2013-2017. The average efficiency score in the investigated hospitals during the study period was 0.802 based on the estimated technical efficiency. Therefore, the capacity to enhance the efficiency of these hospitals was calculated to be 0.198. Our findings showed that managers should pay particular attention to planning issues to increase the efficiency and management of resources, and to be able to enhance their efficiency level in hospitals as well as minimise their costs.

Keywords: health system reform plan; stochastic frontier analysis; SFA; hospital; efficiency; Iran.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPQM.2023.130184

International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, 2023 Vol.38 No.4, pp.482 - 493

Received: 15 Feb 2021
Accepted: 17 Jun 2021
Published online: 06 Apr 2023 *

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