Using data envelopment analysis to improve the hospitals efficiency in Indonesia: The case of South Sulawesi Province

Background: The increasing hospital growth in Indonesia provides favorable efforts in increasing public access to health care facilities. However, this condition will give adverse impacts if it is not compatible with efforts to generate hospitals as efficient organizations. The purposes of this research were to formulate appropriate strategies to improve hospital efficiency in South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. Method: This research used the Data Envelopment method to measure hospital efficiency. Samples of this research were all public hospitals in South Sulawesi province. The total samples of this research were 26 hospitals in South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. Results: Results of the research showed that of the total 26 hospitals assessed, most hospitals in South Sulawesi Province in the current time were still inefficient in which there were 14 hospitals or 53.8% in the inefficient category. The overall mean score of hospital efficiency in South Sulawesi province was 0.91. Conclusions: The inefficiency estimation results in this study can help in formulating a policy to improve hospital efficiency in South Sulawesi Province by reducing certain inputs or maximizing outputs of hospital according to amount of projection inputs and outputs on DEA Analysis.