Efficiency in the Treatment of Hip Fractures

This study addresses the issue of efficiency in the treatment and rehabilitation of hip fracture patients in Sweden. The treatment and rehabilitation of hip fracture patients is defined in terms of a hip fracture treatment process where resources in orthopaedics and after care are used for “producing“ operated patients with a given survival and residence the year after fracture. Each hip fracture treatment process is evaluated in terms of technical and allocative efficiency, using data envelopment analysis (DEA) which is a non-parametric linear programming technique. This method enables identification of inefficient processes and measurement of potential cost savings. It is shown that the annual potential cost savings for the Stockholm area amount to about 40 Million SEK assuming overall efficiency which represents about 11 percent of the total costs related to the hip fracture treatment process.