Efficiency and productivity of county-level traditional Chinese medicine hospitals in Hubei Province, China: A retrospective study based on 17 years of panel data.

BACKGROUND

The county-level traditional Chinese medicine hospitals have significantly expanded in recent decades. This study aims to assess the changes in the efficiency and productivity of the county-level traditional Chinese medicine hospitals and explore the possible causes of such changes.

METHODS

Sixty one hospitals spanning from 2001 to 2017 were selected as samples in this study. And a slacks-based measure of super-efficiency in Data Envelopment Analysis and Malmquist index were used to respectively measure the changes in the efficiency and productivity.

RESULTS

The scale of sample hospitals in Hubei continuously expanded from 2001 to 2017. The mean values of technical efficiency, pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency in 2017 were 0.686, 0.74 and 0.933, respectively. The technical efficiency changes in 2017 was 1.97 times that of 2001, and the technological changes in 2017 was 1.45 times that of 2001.

CONCLUSIONS

The medical environment and resources have been greatly improved due to the expansion of the sample hospitals, but the technical efficiency value indicates that the operation efficiency of sample hospitals still needs to be significantly improved. Decision-makers are advised to attach importance to the efficiency of operation management and consider the impact of multiple factors on the change in productivity.