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Chapter 9.

Productivity

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

Outline

Trends in Healthcare Productivity: Consequences of PPS


Productivity Definitions and Measurements
Productivity Benchmarking
Multifactor Productivity
Commonly Used Productivity Ratios
Hours per Patient Day or Visit
Adjustment for Inputs
Skill-Mix Adjustment to Worked Hours
Cost of Labor
Adjustments for Output Measures
Service/Case-Mix Adjustments
Productivity Measures Using Direct Care Hours
Productivity Quality Relationship
Productivity Dilemmas
Multiple Dimensions of Productivity: New Methods
Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)

Productivity Improvement

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

Trends in Productivity: Consequences of PPS

The recent decades changes in reimbursement


strategies aimed to end waste and promote
innovative and cost-efficient delivery systems.

productivity gains from PPS have not materialized


to the extent predicted.

Hospitals now employ more people to treat fewer


patients, and the increase is not accounted for by
the greater severity of patient illness in the late
1980s and in1990s.

Although employers, insurers and public are


spending less on inpatient care, the rising use of
outpatient procedures has simply increased costs
in that area which counters the savings (Altman,
Goldberger, and Crane, 1990).

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

Trends in Productivity: Consequences of PPS

The constraints that force healthcare institutions


into the role of cost centers, coupled with shifting
patterns of inpatient acuity, tight healthcare labor
markets, and society's expectations of high quality
of care are leading healthcare organizations to a
"productivity wall." When the wall is reached, it
is quality of care that inevitably is sacrificed for
the sake of productivity and profit (Kirk, 1990).

It must be recognized that there are limits to


ratcheting up productivity.

It is not always possible to do more with less.

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

Productivity Definitions and Measurements


Productivity is one measure of the effective
use of resources within an organization,
industry, or nation.
The classical productivity definition
measures outputs relative to the inputs
needed to produce them. That is,
productivity is defined as the number of
output units per unit of input

Output
Pr oductivity
Input
Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

Productivity Definitions and Measurements


Sometimes, an inverse calculation is used
that measures inputs per unit of output. Care
must be taken to interpret this inverse
calculation appropriately; the greater the
number of units of input per unit of output,
the lower the productivity.
For example, traditionally productivity in
hospital nursing units has been measured by
hours per patient day (HPPD). That requires
an inversion of the typical calculations:
meaning total hours are divided by total
patient days.

Total Hours
HPPD
Patient Days
Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

Example 9.1
Nurses in Unit A worked collectively a total of 25 hours to
treat a patient who stayed 5 days, and nurses in Unit B
worked a total of 16 hours to treat a patient who stayed 4
days. Calculate which of the two similar hospital nursing
units is more productive.

Solution:

First, define the inputs and the outputs for the analysis. Is
the proper measure of inputs the number of nurses or of
hours worked? In this case the definition of the input would
be total nursing hours. When the total number of nursing
hours worked per nurse is used as the input measure, then
the productivity measures for the two units are:

Total Hours
25
HPPD A

5
Patient Days
5
Total Hours 16
HPPD B

4
Patient Days
4

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

Productivity Definitions and Measurements


Productivity Benchmarking. Productivity must be considered
as a relative measure; the calculated ratio should be either
compared to a similar unit, or compared to the productivity
ratio of the same unit in previous years. Such comparisons
characterize benchmarking. Many organizations use
benchmarking to help set the direction for change.
Historical Benchmarking is monitoring an operational units
own productivity or performance over the last few years.
Another way of benchmarking is to identify the best practices
(best productivity ratios of similar units) across health
organizations and incorporate them in ones own.

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

Productivity Definitions and Measurements


Multifactor Productivity. Example 9.1 demonstrated a
measure of labor productivity. Because it looks at only
one input, nursing hours, it is example of a partial
productivity measure. Looking only at labor
productivity may not yield an accurate picture.
Newer productivity measures tend to include not only
labor inputs, but the other operating costs for the product
or service as well.

Service Item * Pr ice


Multifactor Pr oductivity
Labor Material Overhead

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

Example 9.2
A specialty laboratory performs lab tests for the area
hospitals. During its first two years of operation the
following measurements were gathered:

Measurement
Year 1
Price per test ($)
50
Annual tests
10,000
Total labor costs($) 150,000
Material costs ($)
8,000
Overhead ($)
12,000

Year 2
50
10,700
158,000
8,400
12,200

Determine and compare the multifactor productivity for


historical benchmarking.

Solution:
Multifacto r Pr oductivity Year 1
Multifacto r Pr oductivity Year 2
Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

10,000 * 50
2.9
150,000 8,000 12,000

10,700 * 50

3.0
158,000 8,400 12,200

Yasar A. Ozcan

10

Commonly Used Productivity Ratios


Hours Per Patient Day (or Visit)

Hours Worked
Hours per Patient Day
Patients Days

inpatient

Hours Worked
Hours per Patient Visit
Patient Visits

outpatient

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

11

Commonly Used Productivity Ratios


Example 9.3:

Annual statistical data for two nursing units in Memorial Hospital are
as follows:
Measurements
Unit A
Unit B
Annual Patient Days
14,000
10,000
Annual Hours Worked
210,000
180,000
Calculate and compare hours per patient day for two units of this
hospital.
Solution:

Hours per Patient Day Unit A

210 ,000
15 hours
14 ,000

Hours per Patient Day Unit B

180 ,000
18 hours
10 ,000

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

12

Commonly Used Productivity Ratios


Example 9.4:
Performsbetter Associates a two-site group practice,
requires productivity monitoring. The following initial data
are provided for both sites of the practice:
Measurements
Annual Visits
Annual Paid Hours

Suburban
135,000
115,000

Downtown
97,000
112,000

Calculate and compare the hours per patient visit for the
suburban and the downtown locations of this practice.
Solution:

Hours per Patient Visit Suburb

115 ,000
.85 hours or 51 minutes.
135 ,000

Hours per Patient Visit Downtown

112 ,000
1.15 hours or 69 minutes.
97 ,000

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

13

Adjustments for Inputs


Skill-Mix Adjustment weigh the hours of personnel of different
.
skill levels by their economic valuation.
One approach is to calculate weights based on the average
wage or salary of each skill class. To do that, a given skill
class wage/salary would be divided into the top class skill
salary.
If RNs, LPNs and Aides are earning $35.00, $28.00, and
$17.50 an hour, respectively;
Then, one hour of a nurse aides time is economically
equivalent to 0.5 hours of a RN's time; and one hour of a LPN's
time is equal to 0.8 hours of a RN's time.

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

14

Adjustments for Inputs

Adjusted Hours

w * X
i

Adjusted Hours = 1.0*(RN hours) + 0.8*(LPN hours) + 0.5*(Aide hours)

Adjusted Hours
Adjusted Hours per patient day
Patients Days

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

15

Adjustments for Inputs

Adjusted Hours

w * X
i

Adjusted Hours = 1.0*(RN hours) + 0.8*(LPN hours) + 0.5*(Aide hours)

Adjusted Hours
Adjusted Hours per patient day
Patients Days

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

16

Adjustments for Inputs


Similarly, in outpatient settings, if one hour of a nurse
.
practitioner's
(NP) time is economically equivalent to 0.6 hours
of a specialist's (SP) time, and if one hour of a general
practitioners (GP) time is equal to 0.85 hours of a specialists
time, adjusted hours would be calculated as:

Adjusted Hours = 1.0 (SP hours) + 0.85 (GP hours) + 0.6 (NP hours)

Adjusted Hours
Adjusted Hours per Visit
Patient Visits

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

17

Adjustments for Inputs

Example 9.5: Using data from Example 9.3, and economic


equivalencies of 0.5 Aide = RN, 0.8 LPN = RN, calculate the
adjusted hours per patient day for Unit A and Unit B.
Unit A at Memorial Hospital employs 100% RNs.
The current skill mix distribution of Unit B is 45% RNs, 30%
LPNs, and 25% nursing aides (NAs).

Compare unadjusted and adjusted productivity scores.

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

18

Adjustments for Inputs


Solution:
The first step is to calculate adjusted hours for each unit.
For Unit A, since it employs 100% RNs, there is no need for adjustment. For Unit B:

Adjusted Hours (Unit B) = 1.0 (180,000*.45) + 0.80 (180,000*.30) + 0.50 (180,000*.25).


Adjusted Hours (Unit B) = 1.0 (81,000) + 0.80 (54,000) + 0.50 (45,000).
Adjusted Hours (Unit B) = 146,700.
In this way, using the economic
equivalencies
of the
Standardized
Cost
of skill-mix,
Labor. the number of hours is
standardized as 146,700 instead of 180,000.

210 ,000
15 .0 hours.
14 ,000
146 ,700

14 .7 hours.
10 ,000

Adjusted Hours per Patient Day Unit A


Adjusted Hours per Patient Day Unit B

Using adjusted hours, Unit A, which appeared productive according


to the first measure (see example 9.3), no longer appears as productive.
Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

19

Adjustments for Inputs


Standardized Cost of Labor. Total labor cost comprises the
.
payments
to various professionals at varying skills. To
account for differences in salary structure across hospitals or
group practices, cost calculations can be standardized using a
standard salary per hour for each of the skill levels

Labor Cost ci * X i
Labor Cost = RN wages (RN hours) +
LPN wages (LPN hours) +
NA wages (Aide hours).

Labor Cost of Care


Labor Cost Patient Day
Patient Days

Labor Cost of Care


Labor Cost per Visit
Patient Visits
Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

20

Adjustments for Inputs


Example 9.6:
Performsbetter Associates in Example 9.4 pays $110, $85, and
$45 per hour, respectively, to its SPs, GPs and NPs in both
locations.
Currently, the suburban location staff comprises of 50% SPs,
30% GPs, and 20% NPs.
The downtown location, on the other hand, comprises 30%
SPs, 50% GPs, and 20% NPs.

Calculate and compare the labor cost of care, and labor cost
per visit for both locations.

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

21

Adjustments for Inputs


Solution:

First, calculate Labor Cost of Care for each location.


Labor Cost = SP wages (SP hours) + GP wages (GP hours) + NP wages (NP hours),
Labor CostSuburban = $110 (115,000*0.50) + $85 (115,000*0.30) + $45 (115,000*0.20).
Labor CostSuburban = $110 (57,500) + $85 (34,500) + $45 (23,000).
Labor CostSuburban = $10,292,500.
Labor CostDowntown = $110 (112,000*.30) + $85 (112,000*0.50) + $45 (112,000*0.20).
Labor CostDowntown = $110 (33,600) + $85 (56,000) + $45 (22,400).
Labor CostDowntown = $9,464,000.

10,292,500
Labor Cost per Visit Suburban
$76.24
135,000
9,464 ,000
Labor Cost per Visit Downtown
$97 .57
97 ,000
Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

22

Adjustments for Outputs


Service-Mix
Adjustments. Service-mix adjustment is useful
.
tool for comparison of, for instance, two community hospitals
that provide different services or have significantly different
distributions of patients among their services. The servicemix adjusted volume is weighted by a normalized serviceintensity factor.

Hi
Wi
Hi n

Adjusted Volume Wi * X i

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

23

Adjustments for Outputs


Service-Mix Adjustments
.
Example
9.7:

Two hospitals, each with unadjusted volume of 10,000 patient


days per month, provide only two services, S1 and S2,
requiring respectively 3 and 7 hours of nursing time per
patient day.
Hospital A has a service-mix distribution of 2000 patient days
for S1 and 8000 patient days for S2.
Hospital B has 8000 days for S1 and 2000 days for S2.
Calculate adjusted patient days for both hospitals.

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

24

Adjustments for Outputs


Service-Mix Adjustments

Solution:
In this case, total unadjusted volume is simply the sum of the volume for each service
in each hospital, or Unadjusted Volume = X1 + X2.

W1

Hospital-A

Hospital-B

Service S1 (3 hours/patient day)

X1=2000

X1=8000

Service S2 (7 hours/patient day)

X2=8000

X2=2000

Total Unadjusted Volume

10,000

10,000

H1
3
3
3

0. 6
H i n (3 7) 2 10 2 5

W2

H2
7
7
7

1.4
H i n (3 7) 2 10 2 5

Adjusted Volume = W1X1 + W2X2.


Adjusted volume for Hospital-A = 0.6*2,000+1.4*8,000 = 12,400.
Adjusted volume for Hospital-B = 0.6*8,000+1.4*2,000 = 7,600.
Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

25

Adjustments for Outputs


Case-Mix Adjustments. The methodology for case-mix
adjustment is similar to that for service-mix adjustment.
Although most hospitals rely on advanced acuity systems,
each system is based on the weight factors for the different
acuity categories.
Patients in each category require similar amounts of nursing
care over a given 24 hour time period; however, across
categories the care requirements differ significantly.
For acuity, the focus is on patients direct care requirements.
The ratio of the hours of direct care provided to the total hours
worked is another measure of productivity.

Case Mix Indexj


Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

W * P
i

ij
26

Adjustments for Outputs


Case-Mix Adjustments
Example 9.8:
Unit A and Unit B (from Example 9.3), a medical care unit in
Memorial Hospital, classify patients into four acuity categories
(Type I through Type IV), with direct care requirements per
patient day being respectively, 0.5, 1.5, 4.5, and 6.0 hours.
Annual distributions of patients in these four acuity categories in
Unit A were 0.15, 0.25, 0.35, and 0.25.
Annual distributions of patients in Unit B were 0.15, 0.30, 0.40,
and 0.15.
Calculate the case mix for these two units, and determine which
unit has been serving more severe patients.

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

27

Adjustments for Outputs


Case-Mix Adjustments
Solution:

W1

H1
0.5
0.5 0.5

0.17
H
n
(
0
.
5

1
.
5

4
.
0

6
.
0
)
4
12
4
3
i

W2

H2
1.5
1.5 1.5

0.5
H i n (0.5 1.5 4.0 6.0) 4 12 4 3

W3

H3
4.0
4.0 4.0

1.33
H
n
(
0
.
5

1
.
5

4
.
0

6
.
0
)
4
12
4
3
i

W4

H4
6.0
6.0 6.0

2.00
H
n
(
0
.
5

1
.
5

4
.
0

6
.
0
)
4
12
4
3
i

Case mix IndexA

W * P

(0.17 * 0.15) (0.5 * 0.25) (1.33 * 0.35) (2.00 * 0.25) 1.12.

Case mix IndexB

W * P

(0.17 * 0.15) (0.5 * 0.30) (1.33 * 0.40) (2.00 * 0.15) 1.01.

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

iA

iB

Yasar A. Ozcan

28

Adjustments for Outputs


Case-Mix Adjustments

Once the case-mix is determined, the output side of the productivity


ratios can be adjusted by simply multiplying volume (patient days,
discharges, visits) by case-mix index as:
Adjusted Patient Days = Patient Days * Case-mix index.
Adjusted Discharges = Discharges * Case-mix index.
Adjusted Visits = Visits * Case-mix index.

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

29

Productivity Measures Using Direct Care Hours


Hours of Direct Care. Hours of direct care is an
important component of productivity ratios. It serves as
a building block for other ratios.
To illustrate its development, let us assume that
patients are categorized into acuity groupings requiring
H1, H2, H3, ., Hm hours of direct nursing care per
patient day.
Further, assume that there are N1, N2, N3, ., Nm
annual patient days in units 1 through m.
The total amount of direct nursing care in nursing unit j
would be calculated as:

Hours of Direct Care j

* Pij * N j

i 1

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

30

Productivity Measures Using Direct Care Hours


Percentage of Hours in Direct Care. This is an
additional measure can be derived from the Hours of
Direct Care calculation, as the ratio of direct care
hours to total care hours.

Hours in Direct Care


Percent of Hours in Direct Care
Hours Worked
Percentage of Adjusted Hours in Direct Care. We also
can determine the percentage of adjusted nursing hours
as adjusted for skill-mix in direct patient care.

Hours in Direct Care


Percentage of Adjusted Hours in Direct Care
Adjusted Hours

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

31

Productivity Measures Using Direct Care Hours


Example 9.9:

Using information from Examples 9.3 and 9.8


calculate:
a) hours of direct care
b) percentage of hours in direct care, and
c) percentage of adjusted hours in direct care
for Units A and B of Memorial Hospital.
Compare these results in terms of percentage of
adjusted hours in direct care.

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

32

Productivity Measures Using Direct Care Hours


Solution:
Memorial Hospital uses an acuity classification system with 4 categories
of direct hours of care per patient day: 0.5, 1.5, 4.0, and 6.0 hours.
The annual distributions of patients in these four acuity categories in Unit
A were 0.15, 0.25, 0.35, and 0.25.
The annual distributions of patients in Unit B were 0.15, 0.30, 0.40, and
0.15.
Annual patient days for Unit A were 14,000, and for unit B 10,000.
Annual hours worked were 115,000 and 112,000, respectively.

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

33

Productivity Measures Using Direct Care Hours


Solution:

Hours of Direct Care A

(H

* PiA * N A ).

i 1

Hours of Direct Care A (0.5 * .15 *14,000) (1.5 * .25 *14,000) (4.0 * .35 *14,000) (6.0 * .25 *14,000)

Hours of Direct Care A 46,900


.

Hours of Direct Care B

(H

* PiB * N B ).

i 1

Hours of Direct Care B (0.5 * .15 *10,000) (1.5 * .30 *10,000) (4.0 * .40 *10,000) (6.0 * .15 *10,000)

Hours of Direct Care B 30,250


Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

34

Productivity Measures Using Direct Care Hours


Solution:

Percentage of Hours in Direct Care A

Hours in Direct Care


46,900

0.223 or 22.3%
Hours Worked
210,000

Percentage of Hours in Direct Care B

Hours in Direct Care 30,250

0.168 or 16.8%
Hours Worked
180,000

Percentage of Adjusted Hours in Direct Care A

Hours in Direct Care


46900

0.223 or 22.3%.
Adjusted Hours
210,000

Percentage of Adjusted Hours in Direct Care B

Hours in Direct Care


30250

0.206 or 20.6%.
Adjusted Hours
146,700

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

35

Figure 9.1 Productivity and Quality Tradeoff

Quality of Output
QA
QA
QB

Hospital A
A

Hospital B

I2

Quantity of Inputs
(Staffing Level)

IA I1

Source: Shukla, R.K. Theories and Strategies of Healthcare: Technology-Strategy-Performance,


Chapter 4, Unpublished Manuscript, 1991. Printed with permission.

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

36

Productivity Wall?

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Quality is difficult to measure, and


its definition is ambiguous
The relationships between quantity
of care provided and quality are
often uncertain

Yasar A. Ozcan

37

Many people confuse. . .


The concepts of
productivity, efficiency,
and effectiveness.

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

38

Its quite simple really!


Efficiency--

using the minimum


number of inputs for a given
number of outputs
Effectiveness-- refers to outputs;
are the proper inputs being used
to produce the appropriate
outcomes?
Productivity-- a broader concept
than efficiency; refers to effective
use of a given set of resources
Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

39

But efficiency has varying dimensions..


Technical

Efficiency-- relationship
between various inputs and related
outputs; use minimum combination
of resources for a given level of
quantity or level of care.
Allocative (Economic) efficiency- adds cost to the measure of
technical efficiency.
Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

40

Graphically,

Iso-cost
MDs

Isoquant

Nurse
Practitioners
(NPs)

Assume NPs and MDs can


be substituted. The hospital
can either use 3 MDs and
2 NPs (pt. A), or 1 MD and
5 NPs (pt. B). Both result
in the same level of quality
and can produce the same
quantity of output.

Are points A and B both technically efficient?


Is point C technically efficient, why or why not?
Remember what an isoquant is? Are all points on an
isoquant technically efficient? economically efficient?
Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

41

Lets expand our discussion. . .


Data

envelopment analysis is a
recently developed technique that
can be used to measure the
multiple dimensions of
productivity.
It allows multiple inputs and
outputs to be used in a linear
programming model that develops
a score of technical efficiency.
Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

42

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)


DEA can be used to measure
productivity of hospitals, physicians,
group practices, or any other unit of
analysis, referred to as the decision
making unit (DMU)
The technical efficiency score of
optimally producing DMUs equals 1
(and lies on the isoquant). All other
DMUs are measured against these
technically efficient DMUs, and have a
score of between 0 and 1.

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

43

DEA-- A Simple Example


Inputs
P1
Visits
2
Medications 1

Physicians
P2
P3
1
3
4
1

P4
2
3

Physicians P1, P2, and P3 are


Supplies
technically efficient, ceteris
4
paribus, and would receive an
efficiency score of 1. Physician 4,
3
however is inefficient and must
reduce either visits and or use of
2
medications to become as efficient as
his/her peers. The amount of the
reduction necessary is called inefficiency. 1

0
Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

Inefficiency

P2

P4

P1

P3

LOS

44

DEA-- An Application
Ozcan and Luke (1993), A National Study of the Efficiency
of Hospitals in Urban Markets

The study examines the contribution of various hospital


characteristics to hospital technical efficiency
Outputs included:
Treated cases
Outpatient visits
Teaching FTEs
Inputs included:
Capital
Plant complexity
Labor
Supplies

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

45

DEA Applications, cont.


Slack values allow the manager to
determine just how much the
input/output mix must be changed for
inefficient DMUs to reach efficiency
DEA is also useful for benchmarking or
development of report cards, making it
particularly useful in a managed care
environment

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

46

Improving Healthcare Productivity


1. Develop productivity measures for all
operations in their organization,
2. Look at the system as a whole (do not suboptimize) in deciding on which
operations/procedures to focus productivity
improvements.
3. Develop methods for achieving productivity
improvements, and especially benchmarking
by studying peer healthcare providers that
have increased productivity; and reengineer
care delivery and business processes.
4. Establish reasonable and attainable standards
and improvement goals.
5. Consider incentives to reward workers for
contributions and to demonstrate
managements support of productivity
improvements.
6. Measure and publicize improvements.
Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

47

The End

Chapter 9: Quantitatve
Methods in Health Care
Management

Yasar A. Ozcan

48

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