Hospital organization and performance: a directional distance function approach

The present study considers the Italian healthcare system, investigating the aspects that might affect the efficiency of Italian hospitals. The authors analyze what influences a specific definition of efficiency, which is calculated maximizing healthcare production but minimizing potential financial losses. In other words, this work considers efficient each hospital which is able to maximize the production of medical treatments while complying, at the same time, with budget constraints. Hence, the results of this paper are twofold: from the organizational point of view, they underline the need for rebalancing the various administrative levels of hospitals; from the technical point of view, a more coherent model is proposed in order to account for all the aspects of the healthcare industry. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013