Table 1.
Characteristics of Efficiency Measures Abstracted from Published Literature
| Number of Measures | Percentage of Measures | |
|---|---|---|
| Perspective | ||
| Hospital | 162 | 61.1 |
| Physician (individual or group) | 54 | 20.4 |
| Health plan | 13 | 4.9 |
| Integrated delivery system | 5 | 1.9 |
| Nurse | 6 | 2.3 |
| Geographic region | 4 | 1.5 |
| Medicare program | 3 | 1.1 |
| Other | 18 | 6.8 |
| Inputs | ||
| Physical | 123 | 46.4 |
| Financial | 82 | 30.9 |
| Physical and financial | 60 | 22.6 |
| Outputs | ||
| Health services | 258 | 97.4 |
| Health outcomes | 5 | 1.9 |
| Other | 3 | 1.1 |
| Statistical/mathematical methods | ||
| Frontier analysis or other regression-based approach | 147 | 55.5 |
| Ratios | 117 | 44.2 |
| Explanatory variables* | ||
| Provider level | 131 | 49.4 |
| Patient risk/severity | 91 | 34.3 |
| None | 90 | 34.0 |
| Area level | 58 | 21.9 |
| Patient level (except risk/severity) | 38 | 14.3 |
| Data source | ||
| Secondary data | 182 | 68.7 |
| Primary data | 53 | 20.0 |
| Not available or not applicable | 30 | 11.3 |
| Time frame | ||
| Cross sectional | 150 | 56.6 |
| Longitudinal/time series | 104 | 39.2 |
| Not available | 11 | 4.2 |
| Reporting of scientific soundness | ||
| Reliability and/or validity testing reported | 6 | 2.3 |
| Sensitivity analysis reported | 67 | 25.3 |
Source: Authors' analysis.
*
Some measures included in multiple categories.