Efficiency of Turkish Health Management Departments through Data Envelopment Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine which of the input and output variables made a statistically significant difference in the efficiency status of undergraduate departments offering Health Management education in Turkey, to identify areas where inefficient departments could improve, and to determine which of the input and output variables made a statistically significant difference in the efficiency status of inefficient departments. The output-oriented data envelopment analysis model was employed in the efficiency analysis. As a decision-making unit, there were 43 Health Management departments. Mann-Whitney U test was used to analyse whether or not there was a statistically significant difference between the efficiencies of the departments based on the input and output variables. In Turkey, 15 of 43 state universities providing formal undergraduate education in the field of Health Management are fully efficient. Also, there was a significant difference in terms of the “number of completed projects” and the “number of papers in journals screened within the scope of Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC)” variables. No study examining the efficiency of Health Management departments has been found in the literature. Department administrators are encouraged to increase their publications and look into ways to design more initiatives.