Impact of Outsourcing Medical Equipment Department on Costs and Profits: A Case Study of a University Hospital in Tehran, Iran

Medical equipment plays a key role in diagnosis, treatment, and medical education. Outsourcing is delegating a part or all activities of an organization to a party (individuals or organizations) outside the organization, which has an important role in the organization's productivity. The current study aimed to investigate the effect of outsourcing the department of medical equipment of a university hospital in the city of Tehran by emphasizing cost and profit as well as performance.

This is a descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional study. We investigated documents and financial records of the financial office in order to obtain costs and revenue. Also, a researcher-developed questionnaire was used to evaluate the effect of outsourcing on employees' performance. A total of 36 subjects were randomly selected, following the sampling formula (the response rate was 72%). The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was applied to test for a normal distribution. As data were not normally distributed, the Wilcoxon test was used. Also, t-test and ANOVA were used to study the difference in the effect of outsourcing and age, gender, and educational level. Data were analyzed using SPSS.

According to the findings, there was a significant difference before and after outsourcing concerning the cost and revenue of the medical equipment department. Concerning the effect of outsourcing on the performance, "human resources factor" obtained the highest mean (3.37), which indicates the poor perspective of the staff in this aspect. Also, the lowest score was related to the "cost-effectiveness" (2.96), which is an average score. We found weak scores concerning dimensions of management (3.28) and quality of services (3.36).

Considering the importance of staff in the hospital, it is necessary to pay serious attention to the impact of different types of reforms intended to increase the revenue and reducing the costs of hospitals on the staff of the organization by emphasizing managerial and human resources dimensions, which not only will increase the efficiency of the organization and satisfaction of the staff, but also translates into better quality.