Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29478088›Full record

ReviewHealth care management science2019

The use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in healthcare with a focus on hospitals.

Sebastian Kohl, Jan Schoenfelder, Andreas Fügener, Jens O Brunner

Erratum issuedAbstract readReview
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Health care management science, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 112 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
112citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

112 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

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  16. Relative efficiency of psychiatric clinics in treating cases without coercion and achieving symptom reduction.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2025
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  19. Optimising Healthcare Delivery:Sultan Qaboos University medical journal · 2025
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52 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Sebastian KohlChair of Health Care Operations/Health Information Management, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Augsburg, Universitätsstraße 16, 86159, Augsburg, Germany.
Jan SchoenfelderChair of Health Care Operations/Health Information Management, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Augsburg, Universitätsstraße 16, 86159, Augsburg, Germany. jan.schoenfelder@unikat.uni-augsburg.de.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8793-955X
Andreas FügenerDepartment of Supply Chain Management and Management Science, Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences, University of Cologne, Albertus-Magnus-Platz, 50923, Köln, Germany.
Jens O BrunnerChair of Health Care Operations/Health Information Management, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Augsburg, Universitätsstraße 16, 86159, Augsburg, Germany.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The healthcare sector in general and hospitals in particular represent a main application area for Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). This paper reviews 262 papers of DEA applications in healthcare with special focus on hospitals and therefore closes a gap of over ten years that were not covered by existing review articles. Apart from providing descriptive statistics of the papers, we are the first to examine the research purposes of the publications. These research goals can be grouped into four distinct clusters according to our proposed framework. The four clusters are (1) "Pure DEA efficiency analysis", i.e. performing a DEA on hospital data, (2) "Developments or applications of new methodologies", i.e. applying new DEAy approaches on hospital data, (3) "Specific management question", i.e. analyzing the effects of managerial specification, such as ownership, on hospital efficiency, and (4) "Surveys on the effects of reforms", i.e. researching the impact of policy making, such as reforms of health systems, on hospital efficiency. Furthermore, we analyze the methodological settings of the studies and describe the applied models. We analyze the chosen inputs and outputs as well as all relevant downstream techniques. A further contribution of this paper is its function as a roadmap to important methodological literature and publications, which provide crucial information on the setup of DEA studies. Thus, this paper should be of assistance to researchers planning to apply DEA in a hospital setting by providing information on a) what has been published between 2005 and 2016, b) possible pitfalls when setting up a DEA analysis, and c) possible ways to apply the DEA analysis in practice. Finally, we discuss what could be done to advance DEA from a scientific tool to an instrument that is actually utilized by managers and policymakers.

Indexed as

Data Interpretation, StatisticalEfficiency, OrganizationalAdolescentHealth Care ReformHealth Services ResearchHospital AdministrationHospitalsHumansData Envelopment AnalysisEfficiencyHealthcareHospital

Identifiers

PMID29478088

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.