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The purpose of this study is to clarify the indicators and measures that correspond to the dimensions of users' evaluation of university library service.

In a previous study, the authors had clarified the four dimensions that construct the evaluation of service quality through factor analyses of the survey data. In this study, nine focus group interviews were undertaken, at the libraries of four universities in Japan, England and Finland. With the aim to recapture the four dimensions in the concrete contexts of library use, the transcripts were analyzed and mapped according to the dimensions: “Effect of Service – Personal,” “Library as ‘Ba’,” “Collection and Access” and “Effect of Service – Organizational.” Another goal of the FGIs was to find out what measures should be added to the questionnaire, if any.

Usage scenarios were clarified for each user group – undergraduates, graduate students and faculty members, and the contents of interview statements were mapped to the tree based on the dimensions. As a result, the features and the background of four dimensions were revealed, and some clues for changes in the service quality assessment instrument were extracted.

Though the interviews were conducted in international/diverse contexts, it is necessary to be discreet about generalization and further examinations are required.

This article addresses considerations important to the service quality assessment in university libraries.

The objective of this study is to identify the dimensions that determine the customers' evaluation of service quality in academic libraries. One university library each in England and Finland and two in Japan were selected to conduct a questionnaire survey based on the GAP theory of SERVQUAL that has led discussions on the assessment of service quality in marketing theory and practice. Since the actual delivery of information as a service outcome is as important as the service process in libraries, attributes inherent to libraries were incorporated into the survey. Subjecting data obtained to exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis showed that library service quality consists of four dimensions: effect of service (personal), library as ba (place), collections and access, and effect of service (organizational), which are different from the five SERVQUAL dimensions: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the characteristics of healthcare facilities that produce the most efficient inpatient orthopedic surgery using a large-scale medical claims database in Japan.

Reimbursement claims data were obtained from April 1 through September 30, 2014. Input-oriented Banker-Charnes-Cooper model of data envelopment analysis (DEA) was employed. The decision-making unit was defined as a healthcare facility where orthopedic surgery was performed. Inputs were defined as the length of stay, the number of beds, and the total costs of expensive surgical devices. Output was defined as total surgical fees for each surgery. Efficiency scores of healthcare facilities were compared among different categories of healthcare facilities.

The efficiency scores of healthcare facilities with a diagnosis-procedure combination (DPC) reimbursement were significantly lower than those without DPC (p=0.0000). All the efficiency scores of clinics with beds were 1. Their efficiency scores were significantly higher than those of university hospitals, public hospitals, and other hospitals (p=0.0000).

This is the first research that applied DEA for orthopedic surgery in Japan. The healthcare facilities with DPC reimbursement were less efficient than those without DPC. The clinics with beds were the most efficient among all types of management bodies of healthcare facilities.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between outpatient orthopedic surgery costs and Japan’s healthcare facilities using a large-scale Japanese medical claims database.

The authors obtained reimbursement claims data for 8,588 patients who underwent orthopedic surgery between April 1 and September 30, 2014 at 3,347 Japanese healthcare facilities. Regression analysis, using ordinary least squares, examined the association between outpatient orthopedic surgery costs and healthcare facility characteristics. By using surgical fees as proxy for the surgical costs, the authors defined three dependent variables: surgical cost for each outpatient orthopedic surgery; pre- and post-operative cost one month before and after a surgical operation; and total cost for each patient. The authors also defined five independent variables, which capture healthcare facility characteristics and patient-specific factors: bed count; whether healthcare facilities are reimbursed in a diagnosis procedure combination system; patient’s age; sex; and anatomical surgical sites.

The authors analyzed 6,456 outpatient orthopedic surgical cases performed at 3,085 healthcare facilities. There were significant differences in the surgical costs for outpatient orthopedic surgery among different healthcare facilities by total beds (p=0.000). Multivariate regression analysis shows that surgical costs for outpatient orthopedic surgery are positively and significantly associated with healthcare facilities classified by total beds after adjusting for patient-specific characteristics (p<0.05).

This is the first research to examine the association between costs for outpatient orthopedic surgery and healthcare facility characteristics in Japan. This study via the multivariate regression method showed that outpatient orthopedic surgery is likely to cost higher as healthcare facility size increased. The average incremental costs for each outpatient orthopedic surgery per 100 beds were calculated at $48.5 for surgery, $40.7 for pre- and post-operative care, and $89.2 total cost.