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Observational Study
. 2024 Feb 13:12:1302732.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1302732. eCollection 2024.

Surgical productivity recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan

Yoshinori Nakata  1   2 , Yuichi Watanabe  3 , Akihiko Ozaki  4
Affiliations
Observational Study

Surgical productivity recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan

Yoshinori Nakata et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Introduction: Previous studies demonstrated that the surgical productivity regressed in 2020. This study therefore explored whether the COVID-19 pandemic had any significant lasting effect of reducing the surgical productivity in Japan. This is a retrospective observational study which is an extension of the previous ones.

Methods: The authors analyzed 18,805 surgical procedures performed during the study period from April 1 through September 30 in 2016-22. A non-radial and non-oriented Malmquist model under the variable returns-to-scale assumptions was employed. The decision-making unit (DMU) was defined as a surgical specialty department. Inputs were defined as (1) the number of assistants, and (2) the surgical duration. The output was defined as the surgical fee. The study period was divided into 42 one-month periods. The authors added all the inputs and outputs for each DMU during these study periods, and computed its Malmquist index, efficiency change and technical change. The outcome measures were its annual productivity, efficiency, and technical changes between the same months in each year.

Results: There was no statistically significant difference in annual productivity, efficiency, and technical changes between pre-pandemic and post-pandemic periods.

Discussion: No evidence was found to suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has any significant lasting effect of reducing the surgical productivity.

Keywords: COVID-19; Japan; Malmquist index; efficiency change; productivity change; surgery; technical change.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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