Multiple Paths Of Hospital Operation Efficiency

Objective: Hospital is the main body of medical service behavior,and to a certain extent,its operation efficiency determines the performance of medical service supply,which is one of the important factors affecting the steady operation and development of hospitals.Existing studies on hospital operation efficiency mostly adopt regression analysis,ignoring the interaction among various factors and unable to determine the causal relationship.Qualitative comparative analysis combines the advantages of quantitative and qualitative methods to obtain causal relationship and determine multiple paths of results.Therefore,this study adopts qualitative comparative analysis method to explore the influencing factors and multiple paths of hospital operation efficiency,so as to provide policy makers and hospital managers with measures and methods to improve operation efficiency,which is of great significance to promote the efficient development of hospitals.Methods: The study will begin in March 2021.The data used in this study were collected from China Health Statistical Yearbook 2020 and China Health Statistical Yearbook 2021.In this study,the CCR model of data envelopment analysis was adopted to evaluate the efficiency of hospitals in 31 provinces and municipalities in China with an output-oriented approach,and the comprehensive efficiency was taken as the result variable of qualitative comparative analysis,namely operation efficiency.The influencing factors of hospital operation efficiency were selected through literature review,and the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis framework was constructed.Then,the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis method was used to analyze the configuration of hospital operation efficiency.In this study,the calibration threshold was adjusted to test robustness.In this study,Deap 2.1 software and fs QCA3.0 software were used to analyze the data.Results: In 2019,the pure technical efficiency of Shanghai,Henan,Hubei,Guangdong,Guangxi,Sichuan,Guizhou,Xizang,Ningxia and Xinjiang among the 31 provinces and municipalities reached 1.000;the scale efficiency of Shanghai,Anhui,Hubei and Guangxi reached 1.000;and the comprehensive efficiency of Shanghai,Hubei and Guangxi reached 1.000.The single condition necessity analysis results of fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis show that there is no necessity condition of hospital operation efficiency among the included condition variables.In the configuration analysis,there are 6 paths for high hospital operation efficiency and 3paths for low hospital operation efficiency.This study has good robustness,indicating that the results of this study are stable and reliable.Conclusion: The high operating efficiency and low operating efficiency of Chinese hospitals have causal complexity.There are two types of six paths for hospital high operation efficiency,which are regional-structure-service-oriented type and government-service-oriented type.There are one type of three paths for hospitals low operation efficiency,which are structure-service-oriented type.Different configurations should be adopted according to local conditions to improve hospital operation efficiency.