Optimising Healthcare Delivery: Efficiency analysis of Oman's governorate hospital networks

This study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of the healthcare facilities in the Oman to guide the decision-making process and benchmarking.

Input-oriented data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to assess the relative efficiency of governorate hospitals in Oman using 2022 data extracted in December 2023. In the second stage of data analysis, the Tobit model was applied to assess determinants of governorate hospital inefficiency; 3 DEA models were created (staffing, structure and budget).

A total of 10 governorate hospitals were included in this study. The efficiency score change was small for the governorate hospitals and no hospital shifted from full efficiency to very low efficiency between the 3 models. The only explanatory variables that are significantly correlated with efficiency score in the structure model were bed occupancy rate (P = 0.007, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.010 to 0.037) and nurse-to-bed ratio (P = 0.099, 95% CI: -1.219 to 0.146). The results of the Tobit regression for the staffing model of DEA show that there are 3 variables which are positively correlated to efficiency score: bed occupancy rate, nurse-to-bed ratio and expenditure. The third model evaluated efficiency by comparing resource utilisation to service outputs, identifying 6 fully efficient hospitals and opportunities for enhancing resource allocation.

These results allow for benchmarking against best-performing hospitals, facilitating the identification of areas for sustained improvement. Reallocating resources from overperforming to underperforming hospitals, streamlining workflows and implementing a continuous performance evaluation system can help bridge efficiency gaps.