Eficiência Técnica dos Hospitais Portugueses 1997-2004: uma Análise (Regional) com Base num Modelo de Fronteira Estocástica

Abstract

We estimate a stochastic cost function frontier model a la Battese and Coelli (1992, 1995) to learn the determinants of variable costs for a panel of 51 Portuguese hospitals for the years 1997-2004. Our results are statistically significant and are economically meaningful. Among our several novel results, we note that hospitals organized under the “SA/EPE” umbrella, and hospitals with certified quality management systems have, ceteris paribus, higher variable costs. We also show that regional variables, such as the region of location and the population of the city where the hospital is, explain about 60% of the variation in estimated technical efficiency. These results are robust and have important policy implications regarding hospital location and concentration decisions.