Productivity analysis of hospital mergers in Portuguese National Health System

Abstract

Objective: Evaluation of the productivity in hospitals merger between 2005 and 2013. Methods: Malmquist index for the measurement of productivity resorted to the Malmquist index. This method considers the simultaneous variation of the efficiency and the variation of technology (best practices). The target population were the hospitals created between 2003 and 2010. Data were obtained from critical literature review (Ministry of Health management reports). The model considers the change in efficiency and the change in technology, achieved on the basis of cost and production data held for the hospital centers created before and after the merger and for comparison with the hospitals that were not merged. Results: 60% of hospitals showed no improvement in productivity with the reform in the study, the average productivity before the merger was 1,004 and after melting down to 0.977. Hospitals not subject to merger process showed better results with an average yield of 0.994. Conclusions: The health units merger policy does not generate productivity gains in the medium term and the results showed on average are less positive.