The application of DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) window analysis in the assessment of influence on operational efficiencies after the establishment of branched hospitals

Background: Many large-scaled public hospitals have established branched hospitals in China. This study is to provide evidence for strategy making on the management and development of multi-branched hospitals by evaluating and comparing the operational efficiencies of different hospitals before and after their establishment of branched hospitals. Methods: DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) window analysis was performed on a 7-year data pool from five public hospitals provided by health authorities and institutional surveys. Results: The operational efficiencies of sample hospitals measured in this study ( including technical efficiency, pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency) had overall trends towards increase during this 7-year period of time, however, a temporary downturn occurred shortly after the establishment of branched hospitals; pure technical efficiency contributed more to the improvement of technical efficiency compared to scale efficiency. Conclusions: The establishment of branched-hospitals did not lead to a long-term negative effect on hospital operational efficiencies. Our data indicated the importance of improving scale efficiency via the optimization of organizational management, as well as the advantage of a different form of branch-establishment, merging and reorganization. This study brought an insight into the practical application of DEA window analysis on the assessment of hospital operational efficiencies.