Outsourcing in the management of the public hospitals in the Lublin Voivodeship

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present the research results concerning the identifiation of the relations between the outsourcing use and the achievement of the economic goals by the healthcare facilities. The research was conducted in the years 2011–2014 among the senior management of public hospitals in the Lublin Voivodeship, with the use of the self-made questionnaire and the analysis of the hospitals’ fiancial documents. Then, with the use of the statistical analysis, the correlations between the proposed financial variables and the questionnaire answers were identified. Public hospitals use contract outsourcing mainly in the scope of the ancillary and quasi-operational services. The major correlations of the outsourcing use with: the current ratio, debt ratio and the fiancial result concern the effects of its use, i.e. the possibility of focusing on the primary activity by the management staff or on the fear of the likeliness of outsourcing company increasing the prices. The crucial relations were also observed between the “overall” fiancial ratio and the equipment and facilities connected with the activities contracted out to an external company, and between the methodology and the complexity of implementing this concept. To sum up, outsourcing some services, besides achieving quality goals, has also an impact on a facility’s economic results because quality effects of outsourcing indirectly influence the financial results of a unit. Moreover, cooperation with a partner company, instead of outsourcing a given service and excluding it from the managerial activities, not only can increase the quality of the function that has been handed over, but also it can improve the main fiancial ratios.