Table 2.
Measurement variables and interpretations at all levels
| Variable code | Variable name | Description and measure of the variable |
|---|---|---|
| y | Efficiency | Hospital technical efficiency score |
| Level-1 | Intra-hospital changes | |
| t | Time | Years 2012–2016 expressed as 0–4, respectively |
| FP | Government financial assistance | Annual financial input (unit: 10000 yuan) |
| A2 | Physical area of the hospital | Physical area of the hospital (unit: square meter) |
| A3 | Actual number of open beds | Actual number of open beds per year (unit: bed) |
| A6 | Number of healthcare technicians | Annual number of hospital healthcare technical personnel (unit: person) |
| A11 | Total fixed assets | Total annual fixed assets (unit: 10000 yuan) |
| V1 | Daily charge per bed (Cost of every bed-day in hospital: yuan/ bed-day) | Hospitalization income (including medical and pharmaceutical) / actual occupancy bed-days |
| V7 | Medical costs per 100-yuan medical income | (Medical business cost + management cost) / (medical income * 100) |
| V8 | Total assets turnover | (Medical income + other income) / total assets |
| V9 | Ratio of revenue and expenditure | Balance of revenue and expenditure / (medical income + [basic income, financial assistance, and other income]) * 100% |
| V10 | Asset-liability ratio | Total liabilities / total assets * 100% |
| Level-2 | Inter-hospital differences | |
| GHP | Hospital grade | Numbers 0–4 represent unrated, middle second-class, upper second-class, middle first-class, and upper first-class hospitals, respectively |
| THP | Hospital category | Taking general hospitals as the reference category, the two virtual variables are transformed into maternal and child healthcare hospitals (FY) and traditional Chinese medicine hospitals (ZY) |
| Level-3 | Inter-county differences | |
| GDP | Per capita gross domestic product (GDP) | GDP / county population; measures a region’s economic development and standard of living |
| D1 | Number of healthcare technicians per 1000 people (person) | Total healthcare technician population / (county population * 1000); measures the level of human resource investment and equity of the distribution of medical and health services |
| DP | Population density | Total population / county area; used to measure county health service needs |
| HP | Density of medical institutions | Total number of medical institutions in the area / county area; measures county medical institutions’ competition |
| CZ | Urbanization rate | Urban population / permanent population; used to measure social and cultural development of a county |
Source: Chongqing Health Information Center, Chongqing Health and Family Planning Statistical Yearbook, and Chongqing Statistical Yearbook