Improving productivity: theory and application to Australian hospitals

HDR Candidate: Zhichao Wang

Milestone: Confirmation

Title: Improving productivity: theory and application to Australian hospitals

When: Friday, 26 March 2021; 3-5pm

Where: Zoom https://uqz.zoom.us/j/87473915989 (UQ staff and students only)

Abstract:

Healthcare is essential to the well-being of people and the economic prosperity of society. The efficiency levels of hospitals, the institutions playing a main character in the healthcare services, are therefore a topic worth attention from the researchers in relative fields. The goal of this thesis is to analyze the productivity and efficiency of Australian hospitals by applying the newly developed advanced methodologies in order to find ways for their potential improvements. The thesis mainly focuses on nonparametric method, such as envelop-type estimators, to explore the levels of efficiency of the research targets. Meanwhile, the state of art statistics and computer science approaches, which are appropriate for interpreting and analyzing the results of the efficiency estimation, is also applied as a novel contribution to the literature in relative topics.

The thesis consists of three papers, including a systematic review of efficiency analysis of hospitals in Australia, other peer countries and regions, an application of sequential DEA on the efficiency estimation of hospitals in Australia and its comparison with the standard DEA method, and a causal study of the level of efficiency of individual or group of hospitals with machine learning and other analysis techniques. As a result, the thesis is expected to introduce new applications to the literature as well as new empirical perspectives to the topic.