Title: Medical Technology and Hospital Efficiency: Evidence from Surgical Robot Adoption

Speaker:Zou Jie, Associate Researcher at School of Economics, Shandong University. His research interests include public economics, development economics, and applications of artificial intelligence in economics.

Abstract:Against the backdrop of population aging and rising pressure on hospital capacity, advances in medical technology are increasingly viewed as a potential way to improve hospital performance. This study examines the impact of surgical robot adoption on hospital operational and financial outcomes using monthly hospital panel data and a staggered difference-in-differences design. To measure hospital output under fixed resource constraints, we adapt the conventional firm-level efficiency framework by using the number of successfully treated and discharged inpatients as the core output measure. We find that the adoption of surgical robots significantly improves inpatient operational performance. Hospitals experience increases in labor productivity, patient turnover, bed turnover, and total factor treatment productivity following adoption. On the financial side, adoption imposes a short-run reduction in profits because of substantial acquisition and maintenance costs. Over time, growth in related revenues offsets these pressures, and profit levels gradually return to their pre-adoption trend. Overall, the results show that surgical robots can generate meaningful efficiency gains for hospitals, although these gains are accompanied by short-term financial pressure.

Date & time: 02 April 2026, 12:15-13:15

Venue: B321, Zhixin Building, Central Campus, Shandong University