Table 1.

Summary of the reviewed studies’ characteristics

No.	Study	Publication year	Country	No. of hospitals	Inputs	Outputs	Methods of analysis	Second-stage	Quality (%)
1	Yusefzadeh et al. [26]	2013	Iran	23	Bed, doctor, health personnel	Outpatients, occupied day bed	DEA	NA	75
2	Ahmadkiadaliri et al. [27]	2011	Iran	19	Physician, specialist, nurses and others. bed	Outpatient, inpatients days, surgeries, BOR	DEA	NA	83
3	Helal and Elimam [28]	2017	Saudi Arabia	270	Bed, doctors, nurses, other personnel	Outpatient, inpatients, No radiology, laboratory,	DEA	NA	67
4	Gok and Sezen [29]	2013	Turkey	348	Bed, specialist physicians, non-SP. physicians	BUR, BTR, surgery, births, outpatient inpatient days, discharge.	DEA	Logit regression analysis, correlation, mean difference.	92
5	Gok and Altindag [30]	2015	Turkey	251	Specialized physicians, non-sp. physicians, bed	BUR, BTR, surgery, births, outpatient inpatient days, discharge.	DEA, MPI	correlations, mean differences	92
6	Hatam et al. [31]	2010	Iran	21	Bed, physicians. Nurses, other personnel	BOR, bed, patient admissions, OBD, ALS, BTR	DEA, MPI	NA	62
7	Mehrtak et al. [32]	2014	Iran	18	Bed, physician, nurse, other professionals	Surgeries, discharges, BOR	DEA, Pabon Lasso	NA	77
8	Kalhor et al. [33]	2016	Iran	54	Doctors, nurses, medical personnel, beds.	Patients days, outpatient, surgery, ALS.	DEA	Group comparison	85
9	Rezaee and Karimdadi [34]	2015	Iran	288	Health personals, equipment, bed	Inpatient, outpatient, special patients, bed, BOR	DEA	NA	42
10	Shahhoseini et al. [35]	2011	Iran	12	Physician, nurse, other staff, bed	inpatient days, ALS, BOR, outpatient, operations	DEA	NA	75
11	Ozgen Narci et al. [36]	2015	Turkey	1103	Bed, specialist, general doctor, nurse, and other employees.	Discharges, day-care, surgeries, outpatient, emergency care	DEA	Multivariate Tobit regression	69
12	Sahin and Ozcan [37]	2000	Turkey	80	Bed, specialist, general doctor, nurse, others, revolving expenditure	Outpatient, discharged, hospital mortality rate	DEA	Mean difference	75
13	Sahin et al. [38]	2011	Turkey	352	Bed, physician, nurses, others, operational expenses.	Outpatient, Inpatient, surgeries	DEA, MPI	NA	77
14	Jandaghi et al. [39]	2010	Iran	8	Physicians, nurse, paramedics, administrative, hospital costs	Outpatient, emergency client, bed day	DEA	NA	58
15	Farzianpour et al. [40]	2012	Iran	16	Physicians, nurses, beds	Inpatients, outpatient, ALS	DEA	NA	50
16	Atilgan and Caliskan [41]	2015	Turkey	332	Physician price, ancillary price, administrative price, capital price	Outpatient, inpatient	SFA	Translog cost function specifications. Generalization assessment.	77
17	Atilgan [42]	2016	Turkey	429	Physician, ancillary, administrative staff, bed	Outpatient	SFA	Restricted and unrestricted effect of Cobb–Douglas and Translog model specifications. Correlation	92
18	Atilgan [43]	2016	Turkey	459	Physician, ancillary, administrative staff, bed	Inpatient discharge, patient days	SFA	DISCH and PATDAY model specification, correlations.	85
19	Sheikhzadeh et al. [44]	2012	Iran	11	Specialist physician, general professionals (physician, nurses, residents, medical team), support staff and non-medical teams, bed	Emergency patients, outpatient, inpatient	DEA	Multiple linear regression, correlation	75
20	Mahate et al. [45]	2016	United Arab Emirates	96	Physician, dentist, nurse, midwife, pharmacist, AHP, administrator, other, bed	Inpatient, outpatient, ALS	DEA	Correlation analysis	83
21	Abou El-Seoud [46]	2013	Saudi Arabia	20	Specialist, nurse, allied health, bed	Outpatient, inpatient, laboratory, radiology	DEA	NA	58
22	Ramakrishnan [47]	2005	Oman	20	Bed, doctor, other professionals.	Outpatient, inpatient, major, minor surgical procedures	DEA, MPI	Mean comparison	62

DEA: Data envelopment analysis; BOR: bed occupancy rate; BUR: bed utilization rate; BTR: bed turnover rate; MPI: Malmquist productivity index; OBD: occupancy bed days; ALS: average length of stay; SFA: stochastic frontier saanalysis