The article written by Min et al., in 2016, researches the technical effectiveness of nursing care. The study also analyses the features of efficient and qualified facilities during the second part of the article (Min et al., 2016). Overall, the research questions focus on estimating the appropriate technical proficiency of nursing care in researched facilities identifying specific factors that positively contribute to their productive performance.
The study uses Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which is a non-parametric technique. The technical effectiveness of nursing was determined by applying three different nurse staffing-level inputs variables and six care quality outputs variables (Min et al., 2016). The study uses both continuous and dichotomous types of variables. The first stage, or the DEA, includes two concepts of inputs and outputs, which incorporate variables such as registered nurses hours, daily pain, and more. The last part of the study comprises organizational factors, including bed size, acuity, memberships, and other variables. The efficiency of the facilities is the independent variable, whereas the other variables are dependent. Lastly, the researchers use a ratio measurement level in the study for both inputs and outputs.
The study utilized a likelihood-ratio test to assess the efficiency of nursing homes throughout the United States. The research uses this test to avoid the limitations of traditional regression analysis (Min et al., 2016). A likelihood-ratio test is used to understand the goodness-of-fit between two different statistical models. It is sometimes referred to as the likelihood-ratio chi-square test. The models used by the study were the technical performance of nursing care and the organizational elements that contributed to the effectiveness of the nursing facilities.
Lastly, the data analysis indicated that private, for-profit nursing homes tend to be more efficient, while effectiveness decreased in nursing homes with more residents on Medicare. However, having more residents with Medicaid was correlated with more efficiency. Additionally, nursing homes with more beds and a more significant occupancy rate performed better than those with fewer beds (Min et al., 2016). The study also concluded that future research using multilevel modeling should clarify environmental elements to understand state policy differences better.
Reference
Min, A., Park, C. G., & Scott, L. D. (2016). Evaluating technical efficiency of nursing care using data envelopment analysis and multilevel modeling. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 38(11), 1489–1508. Web.