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Measuring Productivity and Quality Changes Using Data Envelopment Analysis: An Application to Catalan Hospitals
Author(s) -
Solà Magda,
Prior Diego
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
financial accountability and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.661
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1468-0408
pISSN - 0267-4424
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0408.00129
Subject(s) - data envelopment analysis , productivity , catalan , frontier , index (typography) , malmquist index , benchmarking , technical change , economics , econometrics , convergence (economics) , quality (philosophy) , production–possibility frontier , efficient frontier , stochastic frontier analysis , total factor productivity , operations management , computer science , production (economics) , statistics , mathematics , financial economics , microeconomics , macroeconomics , political science , humanities , management , portfolio , philosophy , epistemology , world wide web , law
This paper focuses on hospital performance using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Malmquist index numbers. We present a new approach that restricts achievement in productivity if quality is reduced. Results present an apparent negative evolution in productivity. The decomposition on the Malmquist index shows a clear improvement in technical quality, a convergence in efficiency between frontier and non‐frontier hospitals and a theoretical fall in technical change (drop of the best practice frontier between years). The conclusions present reasoning justifying these results and propose the use of this methodology for the appraisal of effectiveness in the public sector.