PPP hospitals are markedly more efficient, performing better than the unreformed hospitals in a number of areas, including bed turnover rate (annual number of discharges per bed), bed substitution rate (average number of days a bed remains unoccupied between patients), bed occupancy, and length of stay (Exhibit 1). As measured by discharges per bed, the PPP hospitals were significantly more productive for general (p < 0.01), surgical (p < 0.05), and clinical (p < 0.05) discharges. Discharges in obstetrics/gynecology (OB/GYN) departments per bed were higher, but only marginally significant (p < 0.10). The group comparison study revealed that, consistent with international best practices, PPP hospitals use about one-third fewer physicians (full-time equivalent; p < 0.05) and one-third more nurses (full-time equivalent; p < 0.10) than directly managed facilities. This more appropriate staff mix likely contributes to these efficiency findings.
The Data Envelopmental Analysis results confirm those from the comparative evaluation. PPP hospitals were found to be significantly more efficient than directly managed hospitals. In fact, the latter require approximately 60% more resources than the PPP hospitals to produce a comparable output.
(As this material had been lifted from a study by La Forgia and Harding, many sections have not been shared here, for brevity. The following part summarizes the findings.)