Analysis of management efficiency and determinants: 34 regional public hospitals

The purpose of this study is to measure the management efficiency using SFA, and to examine the determinants using fixed and random effects model, panel tobit model in the 34 regional public hospitals. In the first-stage, management efficiency was evaluated based on total revenue, the number of licensed hospital beds, capital stock, and the number of doctors. The overall average efficiency was 0.402, and the highest efficiency was 0.558 and the lowest efficiency was 0.226, confirming that there are many things that can improve efficiency. In the second-stage, estimated management efficiency was used as the dependent variable, and the ratio of the elderly aged 65 or older, the total number of beds in the region, the urban size, and the management characteristics were analyzed using subsidies, labor cost expenditures, total debt, and whether training institutions were designated as independent variables. In addition, dummy variables were included to control the impact of the occurrence of COVID-19. As a result of the analysis, the ratio of the elderly aged 65 or older, labor expenditure, subsidies, urban size, and variables of COVID-19 were positive (+) relationships with management efficiency, and the total debt had a negative (-) relationship with management efficiency and satisfied the significance level.