The effect of experience, ownership and focus on productive efficiency: A longitudinal study of U.S. hospitals
研究了美国医院的经验、所有权类型和临床专注度如何影响生产效率，发现经验与效率呈曲线关系，临床专注度提升效率，非营利与营利医院在成本和质量上权衡不同。
Abstract Focusing on organizational learning research in healthcare settings, this paper studies how experience, ownership and focus affect productive efficiency in U.S. hospitals. Building on organizational learning theory, health economics and the focused factory concept, we propose that hospitals learn to improve productive efficiency and the relationship between productive efficiency and cumulative experience is curvilinear. We also hypothesize that clinical focus has a positive effect on productive efficiency and that nonprofit hospitals and proprietary hospitals trade off costs and quality differently. The proposed hypotheses are tested with yearly performance data for over 3700 major U.S. hospitals spanning from 1996 to 2010. We find strong support for the proposed hypotheses.