Performance management in hospital organizations from the perspective of Principal Component Analysis and Data Envelopment Analysis: the case of Federal University Hospitals in Brazil

Abstract

In view of the scenario of hospital organizations, marked by the scarcity of infrastructural, human and material resources, the Federal University Hospitals (Hospitais Universitários Federais – HUFs), supported by the Restructuring National Program of Federal University Hospitals (Programa Nacional de Reestruturação dos Hospitais Universitários Federais – REHUF), since 2010 appears. In this sense, although studies in the literature bring hybrid multi-criteria decision making models based on the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Data Envelopment Analysis’ (DEA) techniques, none fill gaps inherent in DEA, regarding inputs and outputs’ selection, specially involving the performance management of HUFs. Thus, this paper aimed to measure the performance of Brazilian HUFs participating in the REHUF, through the use of the multivariate statistical technique, Principal Component Analysis, and the use of Data Envelopment Analysis, covering theoretical and practical contributions to the academy and hospital organizations. This paper also presented a descriptive and quantitative character; followed the exploratory purpose and the inductive logic, being empirically structured in three stages. In general, it could be inferred that the hospitals characterized as inefficient, so were with regard to the production of medicine residents (MR), by specialty area, for the year 2014. Therefore, they presented a context constituted by high inputs’ consumption, for an average production not so high MR, among the specialties. However, it was showed, throughout the paper, that efficient hospitals have also obtained similar results, but at the cost of lower inputs’ consumption.