RESUMEN
An inefficient health system wastes scarce resources even if it makes considerable gains in accountability and equity. Such a system is expected to perform better. Therefore, it is vital to examine the current performance of health systems and their constituents and assess how to reach their maximum potential. This study aimed to evaluate the technical and economic efficiency of medical diagnostic laboratories in hospitals affiliated with Urmia University of Medical Sciences (UUMS) in 2016. In this descriptive-analytical study, data from diagnostic laboratories of the hospitals of UUMS have been inputted into Frontier4.1 software after taking the log of variables. Then, the technical and economic efficiency of the laboratories were obtained by estimating the production and cost function using the stochastic frontier analysis method, assuming input minimization for 2016. The mean technical and economic efficiency score of the diagnostic laboratories were determined to be 93.1% and 51.9%, respectively. These laboratories need to reduce their inputs and costs in order to achieve full efficiency without changing the amount of their output. Although the average economic efficiency of the diagnostic laboratories of the studied hospitals was high, there is still an increase in the efficiency of these units, given the cost of inputs at the time of allocating resources. In addition, it is possible to improve the technical efficiency of the clinical laboratories of hospitals affiliated with UUMS by 48.1% by applying the same level of inputs and without increasing the costs.
RESUMEN
INTRODUCTION: Clinical laboratories are identified as one of the most important and expensive units of the health system. Therefore, it is essential to pay attention to these units' cost efficiency. This study purpose was to evaluate the economic efficiency of hospitals' laboratory units affiliated to Urmia University of Medical Sciences (UMSU), in order to assess their performance. METHODS: This research was a descriptive-analytic study that was accomplished in 2017. The statistical population of the study included all of the hospitals' clinical laboratories affiliated to UMSU. Moreover, DEA method and Deap2.1 software were used to analyze data. In this study, technical and allocative efficiencies of the studied laboratory units were also calculated in addition to the determination of the economic efficiency of the laboratories. RESULTS: The average economic efficiency of clinical laboratories calculated by DEA in 2017 was 0.676. This value was lower than the allocative and technical efficiency scores, which indicates that these units could attain full efficiency by reducing their costs without having any effect on output values. Moreover, about 14 percent of the clinical laboratory units were economically efficient. In addition, it is noteworthy to state that, from total of university hospital laboratories, only three hospitals had no economic excess or deficiency values of inputs. CONCLUSION: Considering that 76% of laboratory units have not been economically efficient, it is necessary for the laboratory managers to consider optimum allocating of resources, with respect to the cost of laboratory equipment and inputs in order to increase their units' economic efficiency.
