Measuring Hospitals Performance: Applying The Management Approach In Nepal

The paper has twofold objectives: to measure management practices from the employer perspective of both public and private hospitals of Nepal and to explore the relationship between management practices and output indicators of the hospitals by utilizing data collected from a primary survey. The total sample size of the hospital was 100. Among the total hospitals, 33% were public hospitals while 67% were private hospitals. The double-blind in-depth survey technique was adapted in order to measure management practices. A single management score was developed by giving equal weightage for all 18 questions. Ordinary least squares were used to establish the relationship between management practices and outputs of the hospitals. The result suggests that the average management score is found to be 2.04, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.93-2.15. The management score is slightly higher for private hospitals (2.08) than for public hospitals (1.94); however, this difference is not statistically significant. Average management scores are strongly associated with total inpatient days, infection prevention practice score, bed occupancy rate, and inpatient days per technical staff. These associations are statistically significant at the 1% level and each regression model has an R-2 value greater than 34. In conclusion, management practices can be measured using the systematic tool and compared across the hospitals. Better management practices are strongly associated with the indicators of performance of the hospitals.