The Impact of Hospital Specialization on Congestion and Efficiency

Sung-hun Park, Joong Hoon Ko, Eun-song Bae, Meehyang Chang and Daecheol Kim
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Sung-hun Park: Department of Business Administration, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea
Joong Hoon Ko: Department of Business Administration, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea
Eun-song Bae: Department of Business Administration, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea
Meehyang Chang: Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Sejong University, Seoul 05006, Korea
Daecheol Kim: Department of Business Administration, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 5, 1-14

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to verify the existence of congestion in Korean hospitals, to identify the causes of congestion, and to suggest directions for efficiency improvement of hospitals. The result showed that congestion occurred in 71.90% of 1185 hospitals. In addition, it was found that hospital specialization has a negative effect on congestion. In other words, the higher the hospital specialization, the lower the overall congestion rate of the hospital. More specifically, the specialization of hospitals also showed a negative effect on congestion of nurses. On the other hand, hospital specialization was found to have a positive effect on the congestion of the number of doctors, but it does not have a significant effect on the congestion of hospital beds. It was also found that hospital size has an effect on the relationship between hospital specialization and congestion, but the location of the hospital and the type of ownership did not act as a moderator.

Keywords: congestion; efficiency; data envelopment analysis; specialization; hospital management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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