The Determinants of Profitability Performance in Regional Public Hospitals

지방의료원 수익성과에 대한 결정요인 분석

The purpose of this study is to find the determinant variables to make profitability in regional public hospitals. The data come from financial statements and annual reports of 34 regional public hospitals for five years (from year 2003 to year 2007). The T or F-test and hierarchical multiple regression analysis are used. The dependant variables are the profitability indicators, ordinary income to total asset and operating margin to gross revenue, and the independent variables are general characteristics, diagnosis and treatment patterns, financial and public benefits. The findings of this study are summarized as follows. First, Variables affecting the profitability indexes revealed from DEA results is the bed occupancy rate, number of hospitalized patients to outpatients, ratio of first medical examination for outpatients, number of daily patients per medical specialist, labor cost per patient and managerial expenses per patient. Second, the ordinary income to total asset representing the asset usage performance is affected by the average hospitalized days, bed occupancy rate, labor cost per patient and ratio of patients with medical insurance coverage. Third, the operating martin to gross revenue obtained from the actual operations of hospitals has its significance with the bed occupancy rate, number of hospitalized patients to outpatients, managerial expenses per patient and public benefit indicator. This study has some restriction not to use pannel data analysis, although it used data for five years. Accordingly, various additional studies should be done to supplement such problems.