Assoc. Prof. Petko Salchev, MD, PhD

The modern hospital is very important and in the same time very expensive and visible element of the health care system. It is possible to evaluate the hospital care by the different qualities and quantities indicators. This gives opportunities to analyze effectiveness of the used resources (effectiveness evaluation) and assessment of the qualities of the services (quality evaluation). In this article are presented and compare two basic models for hospitals evaluation: Benchmarking and DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis).  The basic requirements for this evaluation are presented with their opportunities and weaknesses. Analyses are made with the data from Ministry of Health internet site for 10 top hospitals. The main conclusion: 1) Health care system have a need for evaluation of health services and establishments which should to evidence based. 2) The patients have needs for real information about health services and insurance funds; 3) There is a new and modern methods for the effectiveness evaluation both the hospitals and another institutions – universities, insurance funds, wards etc. 4) Both of these methods have a different opportunities and weaknesses. 5) Implementation and using is easy; 6) There are a trained staff and programs for implementation; 6) To put in practice these methods require a resources and time which means that this is not possible without a governmental support. Recommendation – Development of the independent center for quality evaluation with the support from government and non-governmental institutions.

Key words: effectiveness, hospital, benchmarking, evaluation, quality