Non-human and human service efficiency of long-term care facilities in China

Liangwen Zhang; Ying Han; Ya Fang

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2023.1066190

Non-human and human service efficiency of long-term care facilities in China

Front Public Health. 2023 Mar 2:11:1066190. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1066190. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Liangwen Zhang^{1

2}, Ying Han¹, Ya Fang¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Molecular Vaccinology and Molecular Diagnostics, School of Public Health, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
² School of Economics, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.

Abstract

Introduction: Care services provided by long-term care facilities (LTCFs) are currently plagued by care resource shortages and insufficient utilization. The analysis on the temporal and spatial distribution of human resources and non-human resources in LTCFs, could provide a basis to optimize resource allocation and efficient use of limited resources.

Methods: This study used data envelopment analysis to comprehensively evaluate the efficiency of human and non-human resources in different time spans and regions. The spatial Markov chain and spatial correlation were also applied to explore the heterogeneity of and correlation between the service efficiency of LTCFs in different regions and then analyzes the influencing factors of efficiency using Tobit regression model.

Results: The quantitative changes in the service efficiency of LTCFs in various provinces showed a "W" shape in two periods, ranging from 0.8 to 1.6. The overall efficiency of LTCFs in different regions had a lower probability to achieve short-term cross-stage development. Non-human resource efficiency presented a "cluster" distribution mode, demonstrating a great probability to achieve cross-stage development, which might be due to the regional disparities of economic development and land resource. Tobit regression analysis results also showed that the comprehensive efficiency of LTCFs decreases by 0.210 for every square increase in construction space variation. However, human resource efficiency had a significant spatial polarization, making it difficult to develop area linkages. The reason for this might be the nursing staff have relatively stable regional characteristics, weakening the inter-provincial spatial connection. We also found that female workers, aged between 35 and 45 can positively affect the efficiency of LTCFs. Those staff stay focused and improve their skills, which might improve the efficiency of LTCFs. So improving technology and service quality changes by increasing female workers, aged between 35 and 45, and avoiding excessive construction space changes can enhance the growth of service quality and personnel stability of LTCFs.

Conclusion: There is an urgent trade-off among staff quality improvement, resource reduction, construction excessive and substantial regional variation in efficiency. Therefore, strengthening policy support to encourage inter-regional initiatives, particularly highlighting the development of human resources interaction and common development is urgent.

Keywords: data envelopment analysis; long-term care facilities; non-human and human efficiency; service efficiency; spatial Markov chain.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

China
Efficiency*
Female
Humans
Long-Term Care*
Regression Analysis
Resource Allocation

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number 81973144) and the High-end Science and Technology Innovation think Tank Youth Project of China (Grant Number 2021ZZZLFZB1207146). This work was supported by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People's Republic of China, for its support with the data.