Nursing manpower and productivity in medical service industry

The Malmquist Index (MI) is a bilateral index that can be used to compare the production technology of two economies also as two different time status of one economy. Since, the nurse-to-bed ratio is the standard quantitative indicators of changes in technical efficiency, changes in technology, and total factor productivity in the medical service industry; we explore the link between the nurse-to-bed ratio and three MIs at the industry level using Twainese context. Our results show that the annual average nurse-to-bed ratio is inversely related to changes in efficiency in large cities. However, in medium-sized cities, annual changes in the average nurse-to-bed ratio are inversely related to the total factor productivity. We propose four assessment models to assist in the formulation of strategies aimed at improving the quality of care as well as productivity while considering the particulars of individual cities and regions Classification JEL: I13, I15, I18, O32