Abstract
BACKGROUND: Hospital service efficiency is a vital indicator of the effectiveness of a country's healthcare system. If regional heterogeneity is ignored in measuring the efficiency of health services, erroneous judgments may result. METHODS: This study utilized the Meta-Frontier Slack-Based Measure (SBM) model to evaluate the efficiency of hospital services across various Chinese provinces from 2009 to 2022. Efficiency comparisons were made using regional and common frontiers, while the technical gap and its decomposition index were applied to identify the sources of efficiency disparities among regions. The Spatial Durbin Model was then employed to analyze the spatial spillover effects of hospital service efficiency. RESULTS: The findings reveal that under the common frontier, the Central South regions demonstrate the highest efficiency, averaging 0.7549, followed by East China at 0.7184, the Southwest at 0.6245, the Northwest at 0.5497, North China at 0.4884, and the Northeast at 0.3571. Technical disparities among China's regional hospital services form three distinct tiers: the first tier includes Central South China, the second tier comprises the Southwest, Northwest, and North China, and the third tier is the Northeast. Management inefficiency predominantly affects the first tier, whereas both management and technical inefficiencies impact the second and third tiers. Furthermore, hospital service efficiency has significant spatial spillover effects, notably enhancing the efficiency of neighboring provinces. CONCLUSION: To enhance healthcare service efficiency, it is imperative to implement precise identification of technological and managerial deficiencies, coupled with the formulation of long-term strategic plans adaptive to demographic shifts and evolving healthcare demands, while simultaneously strengthening crisis management capabilities to ensure the stability and sustainability of service efficacy.