Incorporating Leisure Activities into Data Envelopment Analysis to Assess the Senior Home Operating Efficiency

• Main Authors: Chen-Ying Chen, 陳瑩蓁
• Other Authors: Chin-Yi Fang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/84604248037461743821

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 運動休閒與餐旅管理研究所 === 102 === With the increase in Taiwan’s elderly population, elderly cares become an essential issue. Senior homes change their role from taking aging residents in to offering residents a range of leisure activities in order to expand their caring function and expedite their efficiency. However, the extant researches neglect the issue of the senior homes efficiency. This study incorporating the frequency of leisure activities assesses the senior home efficiency through the multiple-objective data envelopment analysis (DEA). The survey was carried out in 2013 through mail and telephone reminders for 52 senior homes including the continuing care institutions. Usable responses from 31 senior homes were collected, yielding a 60% response rate. The research assesses the efficiency of 31 senior homes with considering input variables ( the number of registered nurses, social workers, nurse aids, the number of beds and the frequency of leisure activities) and output variables ( the number of residents and the average duration of their stay) through an input-oriented DEA. The study further uses a paired t-test examining the efficiency difference between these two efficiency evaluation models with/without including the frequency of leisure activities. The test showed that the inclusion of leisure activities affected the operational efficiency of observed senior homes. The average efficiency score of the DEA model without including the input variable of the number of leisure activities is 0.84. In contrast to this, the average efficiency score of the DEA model including the input variable of the number of leisure activities is 0.9, indicating that the efficiency without including the variable of leisure activity has been underestimated. Of 31 total observed senior homes, 18 were assessed in the efficient frontier. Thus 13 were valued as inefficient senior homes. According to the slack value analysis, it is suggested that senior homes should reduce the average input resources as to promote operational efficiency. Future research could incorporate the impact of the quality of leisure activities on the operational efficiency of these senior homes.