Question

The production function evaluates the relation between the inputs and outputs is important in the healthcare field.

Answer 1

Productivity refers to measurement of inputs & outputs to derive overall production efficiency in a system. Productivity is represented by production functions & is the amount of output that can be produced form a set of inputs. In the case of healthcare we can consider an example of a hospital’s input (namely nurse staffing) & health status as an output of the health production function.

Production function represents the real output created as a result of a process including all inputs. It is of great importance in healthcare as maintaining & improving healthcare is always a primary concern to the health policies. The production function helps in identifying allocative efficiency in a healthcare setup by identifying optimal inputs (& consequent outputs) to improve the healthcare facilities. This is helpful in staffing of nurses & doctors to provide quality care. It is helpful in estimating patient-to-nurse ratio. The relationship between nurse staffing and patient mortality in acute-care hospitals suggest that nurse staffing below target levels in acute-care hospitals is associated with increased mortality. Health care establishments can measure the way in which it can leverage available functional inputs to generate meaningful output. This can drive healthcare towards higher efficiency, growth & standard of living.