Measuring the Relative Efficiency of Health Care Offered in Hospitals of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences Using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Technique

Introduction: To assess efficiency as a relative concept, the difference between real and expected values must be determined by comparing the productivity of economic units of industry and the efficiency in potential production conditions. As economic units, hospitals need to utilize efficiency analysis in order to make optimal use of their available resources. Therefore, the present study compared the efficiency of different hospitals of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. Methods: Since this applied analytical research referred to the documents and performance statistics of hospitals and therfore used real data, evaluating the validity and reliability had no relevance. In order to measure the relative efficiency of health care in 16 hospitals associated with Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and also to determine efficient and inefficient hospitals during 2005-2007, CCR (Charnes-Cooper-Rhodes) input oriented multiplier model of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used for data analysis. In addition, AP (Anderson-Peterson) model was used to rank efficient hospitals. LINDO software was utilized to solve the model. Results: Based on our results, 43.75%, 31.25% and 37.5% of hospitals were efficient respectively in 2005, 2006 and 2007. Conclusion: The results suggested that the efficiency of inefficient hospitals could be improved through the potential savings in resources (62.44% in infrastructure, 43.88% in the number of active beds, 37.15% in the number of physicians and 38.58% in the number of paramedics). Keywords: Efficiency; Health Services; Analysis; Hospitals.