Assessment of hospitals efficiency by Data Envelopment Analysis in Ahvaz in 2006-2010

Hospitals as the centers that consume the most resource of health system, based on their function have difference performance and efficiency. The purpose of this study was to assess the efficiency of Ahvaz hospitals using data envelopment analysis (DEA) method. This study is a descriptive-analytic study, that assessed the efficiency of teaching and nonteaching hospitals in Ahvaz using DEA in 2006-2010. The input variables include the number of doctors, the number of nurses, and the number of beds. The output variables include inpatient bed occupancy, the number of surgeries, the number of outpatient, the number of inpatient, and length of stay. Data was collected using standard forms that have been made by Ministry of Health and Medical Education. Then data was analyzed by DEAP2 software and independent T-test, to compute the difference between the efficiency of hospitals. The mean of technical, scale and managerial efficiency in hospitals during the period of study were 0.740, 0.862 and 0.837 respectively. The mean of technical efficiency in teaching hospitals and nonteaching hospitals were 0.557 and 0.873 respectively. The results showed a significant difference between them. Hospitals with technical efficiency level less than one had slack inputs and outputs. So they should decrease their inputs in order to achieve the expected optimal efficiency.