Determinants of Hospital Performance under Variable Ownership Pattern: A Two-Stage Analysis

Abstract

This study aims to insight the performance of three distinct categories of hospitals according to their ownership pattern in the form of their relative efficiency in the districts of East and West Bardhaman, West Bengal, India. It assesses whether the differences in performances among these hospitals are significant or not. The study also investigates the determinants of the performance of hospitals. Data envelopment analysis is used to measure the performance of hospitals under three distinct ownership categories. The Mann Whitney U Test is employed to examine whether the differences in performances among these hospitals are significant or not. Finally, Censored Tobit Analysis is used to insight the determinants of their performance. Hospitals are categorized according to their ownership pattern, namely, government hospitals owned by state government (H_GOV), public hospitals owned by public sector undertakings (H_PSU), hospitals owned by private authorities (H_PVT). Considering the input-output variables, relative performances have been measured, where the hospitals under government ownership shows best performance, followed by H_PSU and H_PVT. This performance level has significant determinants like size of the hospital, bed occupancy rate and also the management and authority of the hospitals. In a developing or under developed nation, all alternative healthcare providers need to be efficient enough for the rationale of mass health profit. The vision of ‘health for all’ can be reached through the mission of ‘healthcare inclusion’ strategy by including all hospitals in the supply side regardless of their motive, ownership pattern or any other phenomenon.