It is well recognized that hospitals do not operate in a competitive market typically observed in the economics literature, but rather alternative measures of performance must be developed. In other words, health policy analysts, managers, and decision-makers cannot rely on determining...

Hospitals worldwide command the majority of any countries’ health care budget. Reasons for these higher costs include the aging of the population requiring more intensive health care treatments provided in hospitals, the relatively high costs of labor in this labor intensive industry and...