文章基本信息

标题：Does Hospital Competition Improve Efficiency? An Analysis of the Recent Market-Based Reforms to the English NHS
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作者：Zack Cooper ; Steve Gibbons ; Simon Jones 等
期刊名称：CEP Discussion Paper
出版年度：2010
卷号：02
出版社：Centre for Economic Performance
摘要：This paper uses a difference-in-difference estimator to test whether the introduction of patient choice and hospital competition in the English NHS in January 2006 has prompted hospitals to become more efficient. Efficiency was measured using hospitals’ average length of stay (LOS) for patients undergoing elective hip replacement. LOS was broken down into its two key components: the time from a patient’s admission until their surgery and the time from their surgery until their discharge. Our results illustrate that hospitals exposed to competition after a wave of market-based reforms took steps to shorten the time patients were in the hospital prior to their surgery, which resulted in a decrease in overall LOS. We find that hospitals shortened patients’ LOS without compromising patient outcomes or by operating on healthier, wealthier or younger patients. Our results suggest that hospital competition within markets with fixed prices can increase hospital efficiency.