Hospital Efficiency of the Brazilian Regions: A Study Using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the hospital technical efficiency in the regions of Brazil, in the years 2014 and 2015, considering the importance of these organizations to the social and economic environment. To do so, through a descriptive, exploratory, documentary and quantitative research, a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), CCR model, was used, output-oriented, using the number of beds and of doctors and nurses as an input and the number of hospitalized patients and number of hospital deaths as output. In addition, we sought to verify the relationship between hospital technical efficiency and hospital care expenses, by way of a correlation. The present research is characterized as descriptive, exploratory, documentary and quantitative. The findings indicate that the northern region had the most inefficient average compared to the others, and no State in the region reached a score of 1 in the analyzed years. The regions considered more efficient in relation to the others were in the South and secondly in the Southeast, in both years, 2014 and 2015. Furthermore, two states remained efficient during the analyzed years, Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Sul. As for the correlation, it was concluded that there is no significant relationship between the committed expenses and the hospital technical efficiency.