@conference {Katharakis2013242,
	title = {An empirical comparison of DEA and SFA method to measure hospital units{\textquoteright} efficiency},
	booktitle = {ICORES 2013 - Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems},
	year = {2013},
	note = {Cited by: 3; Conference name: 2nd International Conference on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems, ICORES 2013; Conference date: 16 February 2013 through 18 February 2013; Conference code: 97006},
	pages = {242 {\textendash} 251},
	type = {Conference paper},
	abstract = {Although frontier techniques have been used to measure healthcare efficiency, their utility in decision making process is limited by both methodological questions concerning their application. The present paper aims to examine the data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) results in order to facilitate a common understanding about the adequacy of these methods. A two-stage bootstrap DEA method and the Translog formula of the SFA were performed. Multi-inputs and multi-outputs were used in both of the approaches assuming two scenarios either including environmental variables or not. Thirty-two Greek public hospital units constitute the sample. The main output of the analysis was that the efficiency scores increased with the incorporation of environmental variables. Moreover, environmental variables being hospital status and geographical position were found significantly correlating with inefficiency, while patient mobility was not found strongly correlating. DEA and SFA were found to yield divergent efficiency estimates due to the nature of the environmental variables and the measurement error. The analysis concludes that there is a need for careful attention by stakeholders since the nature of the data and its availability influence the measurement of the efficiency and thus it is necessary to be specific when choosing the mathematical form.},
	keywords = {Bootstrap analysis, Data envelopment analysis, Decision making process, Efficiency, Empirical - comparisons, Environmental variables, Geographical positions, Health Care, Hospitals, Mathematical forms, Stochastic frontier analysis, Stochastic systems, Translog},
	isbn = {978-989856540-2},
	url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84877968651\&partnerID=40\&md5=97a0267ec742bfe514cd18ac52f87bbd},
	author = {Katharakis, George and Katharaki, Maria and Katostaras, Theofanis}
}
