Background: The improvement of the efficiency of the hospitals is a common objective in all the Health Systems. In the last years, different management measures have been implemented in the territory directly managed by Insalud, looking for a continuous improvement of the hospital efficiency. In this paper we analyze the activity and the expenses during the last four years in the Insalud managed hospitals.
Methods: A descriptive study of activity and costs during the last four years has been done in all 88 hospitals and also by groups, using usual indicators of intermediary products and activity and costs measured by UPAs.
Results: A global increase of activity is shown: inpatients, outpatients and surgery (above all ambulatory surgery) with a decrease of the average stay and an increase of the rotation index. The activity measured in UPAs has increased in a 2.54% in 1993 compared to 1992 and the UPA cost in constant pesetas has been reduced in 688 pesetas in the same period. The different groups of hospitals are developing a more homogeneous behaviour regarding production indicators as well as costs.
Conclusions: The different management measures implemented in the last years have produced an increase of the activity and of the expenses control leading to less financial increases to perform more hospital activity.