Satar Rezaei - Research Center for Environmental Determinants of Health, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran
Nooredin Dopeykar - Najmiyeh Hospital, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Mohsen Barouni - Health Services Management Research Center, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
Mohammad Jafari - Iranian Health Insurance, Kerman, Iran
Fardin Gharibi - Vice Chancellor for Research Affairs, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran

Background: One way to improve the performance of hospitals, the largest resource-consuming units in the healthcare sector, is to continuously evaluate their performance.Objective: The current study assessed the performance of hospitals affiliated with the Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences using data envelopment analysis (DEA).Methods: This retrospective descriptive-analytic study used DEA to assess efficiency types (technical, managerial, and scale) in hospitals of the Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences (n = ۱۲) in the years ۲۰۰۷ to ۲۰۱۱. The number of active beds, nurses, physicians (general and specialist), and other staff were inputs; inpatient admission and occupied bed days were outputs. Stata version ۱۲ was used for data analysis.Results: The mean technical, scale, and managerial efficiency values were ۰.۸۵, ۰.۸۹, and ۰.۹۵, respectively. The highest and lowest slack inputs were nurses and active beds, respectively.Conclusion: The findings indicate that Kurdistan hospitals were less than appropriately efficient during the studied period. They also suggest that there is a capacity of about ۱۵% for enhancing output in hospitals (compared with the most efficient studied hospitals) without increasing costs or inputs.

Data Envelopment Analysis, Efficiency, Hospitals performance