Measuring the Efficient Utilization of Medical Personnel at Navy Military Treatment Facilities

Abstract

The utilization of personnel at individual Naval hospitals is evaluated using a methodology classified as data envelopment analysis (DEA), which is a math programming technique that determines the efficiency of a facility from a set of variables that measure the utilization of a set of inputs which produce a set of outputs. Since manpower categories comprise the inputs that produce health care output, the utilization of medical personnel at a particular MTF can be compared to those facilities that are determined to be more technologically efficient. The structural equations for personnel are calculated from the data of those hospitals that have above-average efficiency by means of a three-stage least squares procedure. First, physician requirements are determined from workload and beneficiary demand. The number of physicians then affect the numbers of professional support staff including other health-care officers, enlisted, and civilian personnel. In other words, the optimal composition of personnel in terms of output can be determined from the structural equations of hospitals that are efficient. Proposals are made to identify specific differences among MTFs in cross-sectional data.