Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. A nonparametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is performed on hospitals in the federal state of Saxony (Germany) and in Switzerland. This study is of interest from three points of view. First, contrary to most existing work, patient days are not treated as an output but as an input. Second, the usual DEA assumption of a homogeneous sample is tested and rejected for a large part of the observations. The proposed solution is to restrict DEA to comparable observations in the two countries. Finally, hospital beds are treated as a discretionary input in one DEA and as a fixed input in the other, and the effect on efficiency is related to differences in hospital planning in Germany and Switzerland. Based on the comparable observations, hospitals of Saxony have higher efficiency scores than their Swiss counterparts. Terms of use: Documents inJEL-Classification: I11, I18, C61

This study focuses on the question of to what extent patient hospital careers take place in a coordinated way. So, nearly 60,000 hospitalizations with a diagnosis within the same diagnosis spectrum were analysed. The hospitalizations took place in a large regional area within Saxony, Germany. The patient catchment areas were hierarchically ordered (rural/urban) so that a representative sample of all hospitals was obtained. We conclude that in general there is a high degree of intrasectoral coordination in the acute inpatient sector. This applies especially for regions that are near a hospital of a higher care level. Observable problems in the process reflect a weak structure of outpatient care, problems related to rural areas, strategic incentives to pass on cost-intensive cases, or existing informal networks.