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dc.contributor.authorWiley, Miriam M.
dc.date.accessioned2015-07-15T11:33:59Zen
dc.date.available2015-07-15T11:33:59Zen
dc.date.issued1990-08en
dc.identifier.citationWiley, Miriam M., Fetter, Robert B. 1990. Measuring activity and costs in Irish hospitals: a study of hospital case mix. Dublin: Economic and Social Research Institute.en
dc.identifier.isbn0707001137en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10147/560479en
dc.descriptionDuring the period of rapid growth within the health sector which characterised the 1970s, routine evaluation of efficiency and/or effectiveness within the system was minimal. The crisis which subsequently gripped the public finances led, however, to a rather dramatic reversal of this trend and the expansion of the 1970s was abruptly constrained by the financial controls of the 1980s, when maintenance of the health service system, at best, rather than continued expansion, became the priority. While health service effectiveness must be recognised as the highest priority for any health system, this area of investigation is, of necessity, outside the scope of the present study. It is the area of health system efficiency which provides the focus for our investigations here. More specifically, our concerns relate to the measurement of efficiency within the hospital service sector in particular while efficiency in service provision and resource deployment are in themselves, important objectives for the hospital system, efficiency is also a necessary pre-condition for the pursuit of optimal quality of care standards within this system. While the study begins with an overview of developments and changes within the Irish hospital system since 1980, this is a necessary backdrop to the central question addressed in the study: what do hospitals do? While the patients treated by a hospital and the bed-days used can be easily quantified, the question which arises is whether this type of descriptive information can adequately portray the complexity of patient demand and service provision within the hospital system. To take an example: what conclusion can be drawn fro III the infonnaLion thal a maternity hospital and an acute general hospital both have 10,000 discharges in a particular year. Does this mean that both hospitals would be expected to have the saine level of resource requirement within the lime period under review? The usefulness of the information on discharge levels varies between these hospitals. Discharge level in the maternity hospital may provide a worthwhile starting point for the assessment of service demand and resource requirement because the service mix for a specialty hospital of this type is quite predictable. This is not the case for the acute general hospital, and information on discharge levels would be an inadequate basis for the assessment of service requirements and resource needs.en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherEconomic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)en
dc.subjectFINANCEen
dc.subjectHEALTH SERVICEen
dc.subjectHOSPITALen
dc.subjectINFORMATIONen
dc.titleMeasuring activity and costs in Irish hospitals: a study of hospital case mix.en
dc.typeReporten
refterms.dateFOA2018-08-30T13:50:01Z


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