Revisiting Technical Efficiency Measurement within Single Hospital through of a Stochastic Frontier Cost Panel

This article aims to revisit the measurement of the relative technical efficiency of three clinics
belonging to the University Hospital of the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, held in the
second half of the 1990s. On this occasion, the specification of the econometric model included the
analysis of productive sectors of the same institution in different periods of time. A Cobb-Douglas
function of stochastic frontier cost using the compound error model was estimated by maximum
likelihood (MLE), for a monthly data panel. The efficiency measures were calculated using a formula
adapted to the costs, based on the estimated parameters. Now, in addition to the re-presentation of
the original study, we return to its methodological path from the year 2000 onwards. In this task, it is
evident that the evolution of the theme continued to prioritize the comparative evaluations of efficiency
between hospitals, without exploring confrontations between units of the same institution. In view of
this, it is proposed to move towards the use of stochastic frontier cost panels, estimated
simultaneously with functions of variables potentially explaining the levels of inefficiency.