RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS IN DUTCH MENTAL CARE TEAMS: AN EXPLORATION USING DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS
Author(s)
Clazinus Veijer, PhD1, Ellen Visser, PhD2, Frederike Jörg, PhD3, Anoukh van Giessen, PhD4, Talitha Feenstra, MSc, PhD5.
1Researcher, RUG/University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands, 2University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), Groningen, Netherlands, 3University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands, 4University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands, 5Groningen University/RIVM, Groningen, Netherlands.
1Researcher, RUG/University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands, 2University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), Groningen, Netherlands, 3University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands, 4University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands, 5Groningen University/RIVM, Groningen, Netherlands.
OBJECTIVES: Shortage of sufficiently qualified personnel is an increasing challenge in healthcare globally. Hence, healthcare interventions need to be evaluated for their impact on use of scarce human resources. Since standard salary-based costing methods fail due to rigidities in the labor market, the challenge is to estimate the price or value of scarce healthcare personnel. The objective of the current study is to estimate the relative importance across professionals in mental care who provide cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) using optimal weights obtained from Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA).
METHODS: Routine data on treatment activities in four mental healthcare facilities in the Northern region of the Netherlands between 2019 and 2021 were analyzed. An input-oriented constant returns-to-scale multiplier model without weight restrictions was applied to solve optimal weights of inputs. Decision making units (DMUs) were indirectly derived from the data using the ‘Louvain’ algorithm for community detection. Input values consisted of both direct and indirect hours spent for treatment activities. Output consisted of the sum of insurance declaration values of diagnosis-treatment combinations. For 100% efficient DMUs, input weights were multiplied by input values to retrieve the relative importance per professional category in mental care teams.
RESULTS: 20 out of 23 mental care teams that provided CBT performed 100% efficient in the DEA. Based on the weights assigned by DEA, the relative importance of specialized psychologists to the teams was 29.8%. A lower relative importance was assigned to psychiatrists (22.2%), nurses (12.9%), social psychiatric nurses (11.8%), clinical psychologists (4.6%), and physicians (1.6%). Relative importance of the ‘Other’ category was 17.0%.
CONCLUSIONS: The results show which types of professionals that operate in mental care teams contribute most to a team’s efficiency. Ideally, the method as presented here can be developed further to estimate unit prices of healthcare labor input, which can be applied in health economic evaluations.
METHODS: Routine data on treatment activities in four mental healthcare facilities in the Northern region of the Netherlands between 2019 and 2021 were analyzed. An input-oriented constant returns-to-scale multiplier model without weight restrictions was applied to solve optimal weights of inputs. Decision making units (DMUs) were indirectly derived from the data using the ‘Louvain’ algorithm for community detection. Input values consisted of both direct and indirect hours spent for treatment activities. Output consisted of the sum of insurance declaration values of diagnosis-treatment combinations. For 100% efficient DMUs, input weights were multiplied by input values to retrieve the relative importance per professional category in mental care teams.
RESULTS: 20 out of 23 mental care teams that provided CBT performed 100% efficient in the DEA. Based on the weights assigned by DEA, the relative importance of specialized psychologists to the teams was 29.8%. A lower relative importance was assigned to psychiatrists (22.2%), nurses (12.9%), social psychiatric nurses (11.8%), clinical psychologists (4.6%), and physicians (1.6%). Relative importance of the ‘Other’ category was 17.0%.
CONCLUSIONS: The results show which types of professionals that operate in mental care teams contribute most to a team’s efficiency. Ideally, the method as presented here can be developed further to estimate unit prices of healthcare labor input, which can be applied in health economic evaluations.
Conference/Value in Health Info
2026-11, ISPOR Europe 2026, Vienna, Austria
Value in Health, Volume 29, Issue 12S
Code
OP7
Topic
Economic Evaluation, Organizational Practices, Study Approaches
Topic Subcategory
Best Research Practices
Disease
Mental Health (including addiction), No Additional Disease & Conditions/Specialized Treatment Areas