Background:

The financial crisis that begun in 2008 significantly decreased the budget of the public health system on Spain. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the financial crisis on the activity, quality and efficiency of a high-technology university hospital.

Methods:

We retrospectively analyzed the outcomes of four sets of hospital management indicators between 2007 and 2016 (A: activity; B: quality and complexity of inpatientcare; C: staff, global production and budget expenses; D: patients satisfaction survey). The data were obtained from the center’s information systems and treated as longitudinal series of descriptive type. The impact of the crisis was assessed by analyzing the percentage deviations of the different indicators in relation to the values of the year 2009, the year before initial budget adjustments.

Results:

The overall activity of the hospital, adjusted for complexity, decreased 9% during the first two years of the crisis and recovered later. Inpatient complexity increased 14%. Quality set indicators did not deteriorate. Expenses decreased 16% between the years 2009 and 2014, and efficiency and global productivity improved by 13%. Patient satisfaction survey results did not change.

Conclusions:

The financial crisis and the subsequent decrease of budget provoked an initial reduction of hospital activity, associated with a complexity increase. It was progressively made up for with increased efficiency and global productivity. The financial crisis did not have negative effects on quality of care or patient satisfaction.

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