5. Data and results
Data for this study are collected from the MOPH and the hospitals. The sample covers all 92 public regional and general hospitals operating in the provincial areas of Thailand. The study is restricted to these hospitals because they share similar operating environment, and this will help ensure that all the B. Watcharasriroj, J.C.S. Tang / Journal of High Technology Management Research 15 (2004) 1–16 9 hospitals have the same production frontier and all efficiency variation results from differences in managerial performance.