Efficiency, heterogeneity and cost function analysis: empirical evidence from pathology services in the National Health Service in England

J. Buckell, A. Smith, R. Longo and D. Holland

Applied Economics, 2015, vol. 47, issue 31, 3311-3331

Abstract: Pathology services are increasingly recognized as key to effective healthcare delivery - underpinning diagnosis, long-term disease management and research. To the extent that pathology services affect a patient's treatment pathway, significant healthcare costs are influenced directly by the performance of these services. Given pressures on the UK Department of Health to make efficiency savings and that little is known about the efficiency of pathology laboratories, this area offers unlocked potential for efficiency gains. We adopt a time varying inefficiency model, with laboratory-specific time paths for inefficiency, to identify potential savings in pathology services based on a panel of 57 English laboratories over a 5 year period. We apply a range of approaches to account for observable and unobservable heterogeneity between laboratories. We find potential efficiency savings of 13% in pathology services in this sample, which implies the potential for an annual saving of £390m in pathology across the NHS. Our study also provides valuable insights into the impact of a range of factors influencing laboratory costs.

Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00036846.2015.1013617 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:applec:v:47:y:2015:i:31:p:3311-3331

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RAEC20

DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2015.1013617

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Economics is currently edited by Anita Phillips

More articles in Applied Economics from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().