Measuring service productivity and complexity in medical rescue services

The increasing importance of services in high-wage countries calls for a detailed examination of service productivity and complexity in current research projects. This paper describes the development of a measurement model with regard to service productivity and complexity of emergency medical services. While the measurement model of service productivity is partly literature-based, a novel construct is developed for service complexity. The reliability and validity of these constructs have been analyzed by a Germany wide survey with 400 participants. The reliability of the construct is estimated by analyzing Cronbach's alpha, inter-item correlation and item-to-total correlation. The correlation between the measurement model and a self-assessment is analyzed and a confirmatory factor analysis is conducted in order to establish the validity of the questionnaire. The results indicate that the developed constructs have sufficient reliability, although the examination of validity highlights difficulties in quantifying service productivity and complexity.