Polyzos N
Department of Social Administration, Democritus University of Thrace, Komotini, Greece.
Hippokratia. 2012 Oct;16(4):350-5.
The purpose of this study was to access the performance of 117 Greek National Health System (NHS) hospitals for the year 2011, to compare the findings with the results from similar studies of the previous years (2009 and 2010) and to investigate the changes during the last three years of financial crisis.
An input-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis was used to measure three indicators, technical, pure technical and scale efficiency indicators. Data was collected from the reports of the web-based facility (ESY.net) which was developed by the General Secretary of Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity. The input variables were the number of physicians, the number of nurses and other personnel, the number of beds and expenditures of every hospital. The output variables were the number of inpatient and outpatient visits. Hospitals were categorized into three size groups.
Between the years 2009-2011, all hospitals, especially middle-sized hospitals showed performance improvement on all three indicators. Specific problems were noticed mainly in large-sized hospitals. The technical efficiency of Large-sized hospitals was estimated at 80%, of Middle-sized hospitals at 82% and of Small hospitals-Health Care Centres at 89%. Pure technical and scale efficiency varied between satisfactory levels throughout the study period.
Comparing the 2009-2011 data, an improvement of technical efficiency in NHS hospitals has been achieved up to 100%, mainly in the middle-sized hospitals. Specifically, an increase of best practice hospitals has been noted, especially in the middle and small-sized hospitals, when certain units were added the technical efficiency reached over 80%. The consequences of the spending-cuts and the constant reforms appear to have a positive effect on hospitals' efficiency.
本研究旨在评估117家希腊国家卫生系统（NHS）医院2011年的绩效，将研究结果与前几年（2009年和2010年）类似研究的结果进行比较，并调查过去三年金融危机期间的变化情况。
采用面向投入的数据包络分析来衡量三个指标，即技术效率、纯技术效率和规模效率指标。数据收集自由卫生和社会团结部秘书长开发的基于网络的设施（ESY.net）的报告。输入变量为每家医院的医生数量、护士及其他人员数量、病床数量和支出。输出变量为住院和门诊就诊次数。医院被分为三个规模组。
在2009 - 2011年期间，所有医院，尤其是中型医院在所有三个指标上均表现出绩效提升。主要在大型医院发现了一些具体问题。大型医院的技术效率估计为80%，中型医院为82%，小型医院 - 医疗保健中心为89%。在整个研究期间，纯技术效率和规模效率在令人满意的水平之间变化。
比较2009 - 2011年的数据，NHS医院的技术效率提高了100%，主要是在中型医院。具体而言，最佳实践医院有所增加，尤其是在中小型医院，当增加某些科室时，技术效率达到了80%以上。削减开支和持续改革的后果似乎对医院效率产生了积极影响。
