ArticleFrontiers in public health2022
Data envelopment analysis for ambulance services of different service providers in urban and rural areas in Ministry of Health Malaysia.
Article in Frontiers in public health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Modeling IN out-of-hospital emergency medical services-a scoping review of approaches and applications.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Equity and efficiency of health resource allocation in the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle of China.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- The Application of Data Envelopment Analysis to Emergency Departments and Management of Emergency Conditions: A Narrative Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Identifying and Solving Gaps in Pre- and In-Hospital Acute Myocardial Infarction Care in Asia-Pacific Countries.Korean circulation journal · 2023Review
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7 authors.
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Abstract
Introduction: Ambulance services are pivotal in any country's healthcare system. An efficient ambulance service not only decreases patient mortality rate but also allows resource prioritization for better outputs. This study aims to measure the efficiency of ambulance services provided by health facilities in the Ministry of Health (MOH), Malaysia. Methods: This cross-sectional study analyzed the efficiency of 76 Decision-Making Units (DMUs) or health facilities, consisting of 62 health clinics and 14 hospitals. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used for computing efficiency scores while adopting the Variable Return to Scale (VRS) approach. The analysis was based on input orientation. The input was the cost of ambulance services, while the output for this analysis was the distance coverage (in km), the number of patients transferred, and hours of usage (in hours). Subsequent analysis was conducted to test the Overall Technical Efficiency (OTE), the Pure Technical Efficiency (PTE), the Scale Efficiency (SE), and the Return to Scale with the type of health facilities and geographical areas using a Mann-Whitney U-test and a chi-square test. Results: The mean scores of OTE, PTE, and SE were 0.508 (±0.207), 0.721 (±0.185), and 0.700 (±0.200), respectively. Approximately, 14.47% of the total health facilities were PTE. The results showed a significant difference in OTE and SE between ambulance services in hospitals and health clinics ( Discussion: The ambulance services provided in healthcare facilities in the MOH Malaysia operate at 72.1% PTE. The difference in OTE between hospitals and health clinics' ambulance services was mainly due to the operating size rather than PTE. This study will be beneficial in providing a guide to the policymakers in improving ambulance services through the readjustment of health resources and improvement in the outputs.
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