The Features and Determinants of the Operational Performance of District Hospitals in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Sheng-Wei Chang, 張聖偉
• Other Authors: Shun-Chiao Chang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/w66xe7

碩士 === 國立臺灣科技大學 === 企業管理系 === 106 === This study mainly investigates the determinants of the operational performance of district hospitals in Taiwan by utilizing a panel regression model together with data for 1,115 district hospitals over the period from 1998 to 2002. The empirical results of the fixed-effects model reveal that the important assets of district hospitals such as the numbers of hospital beds, nurses, medical technology personnel and divisions all have positive impacts on hospital performance, while the number of physicians gives rise to diseconomies of scale. The teaching hospitals are found to have better performance compared to the non-teaching hospitals, due to their better resources and reputations. Furthermore, the district hospitals have faced a Prisoner’s Dilemma since the implementation of the Global Budget system. The main reason for this is that the system causes hospitals to try to provide more medical services and thereby increases the total number of points. Finally, the unemployed population, dependents (people under the age of 15 or over the age of 65) and the penetration rate of running water are not helpful to the district hospitals’ revenue.