The economic efficiency of clinical laboratories in public hospitals: A case study in Iran

Clinical laboratories are identified as one of the most important and ex‐
pensive units of the health system. Therefore, it is essential to pay attention to these
units' cost efficiency. This study purpose was to evaluate the economic efficiency of
hospitals' laboratory units affiliated to Urmia University ofMedical Sciences (UMSU),
in order to assess their performance.
Methods: This research was a descriptive‐analytic study that was accomplished in
2017. The statistical population of the study included all of the hospitals' clinical labo‐
ratories affiliated to UMSU.Moreover, DEA method and Deap
2.1
software were used
to analyze data. In this study, technical and allocative efficiencies of the studied labo‐
ratory units were also calculated in addition to the determination of the economic
efficiency of the laboratories.
Results: The average economic efficiency of clinical laboratories calculated by DEA
in 2017 was 0.676. This value was lower than the allocative and technical efficiency
scores, which indicates that these units could attain full efficiency by reducing their
costs without having any effect on output values. Moreover, about 14 percent of the
clinical laboratory units were economically efficient. In addition, it is noteworthy to
state that, from total of university hospital laboratories, only three hospitals had no
economic excess or deficiency values of inputs.
Conclusion: Considering that 76% of laboratory units have not been economically
efficient, it is necessary for the laboratory managers to consider optimum allocating
of resources, with respect to the cost of laboratory equipment and inputs in order to
increase their units' economic efficiency.