Effect of the Health Promotion Plan on the Performance of Hospitals: Evidences from East of Iran

Background: Hospitals are considered as the most central and resource-consuming units in the healthcare system. They use from 50 to 80% of public expenditures. As hospitals become more efficient, the better the allocated resources in health sector will be used. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess hospitals’ efficiency in South Khorasan using the Pabon Lasso model. Methods: In this quasi-experimental and time-series study, we investigated the efficacy of South Khorasan hospitals during 2010 - 2018 (before and after the implementation of the health reform plan). All public hospitals in South Khorasan province were enrolled. Data including bed occupancy rate (BER), bed turnover (BT), and patient length of stay (LOS) were collected from hospitals in summer 2018 and analyzed using SPSS, version 21. Results: The means of the Pabon Lasso performance indicators for eight years were 74.4% for bed occupancy rate, 89.9 times for bed turnover, and 3.01 days for the length of stay. The coefficient of occupancy index after the implementation of the health reform plan was 5.7% higher than before, the bed turnover index increased 4.1 times, and the average length of stay increased by 0.08 day. On average, 35% of the hospitals were located in region 1, while 38% in region 2, 21% in Region 3, and 6% in Region 4 in the Pabon Lasso Diagram. Conclusions: Only 21% of the hospitals were in the region 3 of the Pabon Lasso Diagram, which is the desirable region for the efficiency of hospitals. This situation is not desirable and acceptable for hospitals. To increase productivity, interventions are required, and health planners and authorities need to apply economic tools for the improvement of this situation.