En undersøgelse af stordrifts- og samdriftsfordele i det danske sygehusvæsen

SUMMARY: The Danish hospital sector is facing a major restructuring over the

coming decade with hospital mergers and closures as well as construction of new

hospitals. There is a clear trend towards fewer and larger hospitals. The evidence for

economies of scale and scope underpinning these decisions is lacking, however. The

present study applies a hybrid translog cost function to examine whether there are

unexploited economies of scale and scope in the current configuration of the Danish

hospital sector. Cross section data relating to Danish public hospitals in year 2004

were analyzed. Issues relating to hospital definition, hospital production, functional

form, scale and scope testing are addressed. Stochastic frontier analysis and linearregression

are used to examine sensitivity to the assumption of cost-minimization.

Economies of scale and diseconomies of scope were identified in connection with

hospital outputs in the largest hospitals (200+ beds). Furthermore, the assumption of

cost-minimization had little influence on the results. Results for the smallest hospitals

(less than 200 beds) showed economies of both scale and scope.