Are Hospital Pharmacies More Efficient if They Employ Nurses?

Daniel Friesner (), Matthew McPherson () and Robert Rosenman
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Daniel Friesner: North Dakota State University
Matthew McPherson: Gonzaga University

Economics Bulletin, 2010, vol. 30, issue 1, 139-156

Abstract: This paper assesses the efficiency of utilizing nurses in Washington State hospital pharmacies. We take the perspective of a pharmacy department manager and model an input oriented hospital pharmacy production process. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to examine both scale efficiency and technical efficiency, and differences across hospital pharmacies that use and do not use nurse staffing are analyzed using cross-tabulations and nonparametric hypothesis tests. The results indicate that the use of nurse staffing does not significantly impact either scale or technical efficiency. Thus, permitting nurses to play a greater role in hospital pharmacies does not adversely affect efficiency. This paper has important policy implications for hospital administrators and pharmacists.

JEL-codes: I1 R0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-01-11
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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