Abstract Book of the 8th International Conference on Future of Business, Management and Economics
Year: 2026
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Evaluating Large-Scale Hospital Investment Projects: Evidence from Slovakia
Patrik Janok, Rajmund Mirdala
ABSTRACT:
Large-scale investments in hospital infrastructure represent one of the most challenging areas of public sector decision-making, combining high capital intensity, long-term fiscal impacts, and significant social and regional implications. Despite the widespread use of cost-benefit analysis and value-for-money frameworks, the prioritization of hospital investment projects often lacks transparency and comparability across projects.
This paper evaluates seven major hospital investment projects in Slovakia using a unified assessment framework that combines standard financial indicators – net present value, internal rate of return, and payback period – with a multi-criteria scoring approach. Drawing on project-level data from feasibility studies and official investment documentation, the analysis compares the relative performance of individual projects and highlights substantial differences in their assessed economic efficiency.
The results demonstrate that projects with the highest financial efficiency are not necessarily aligned with broader strategic or regional considerations, illustrating a fundamental trade-off inherent in public healthcare investment decisions. By providing a transparent and replicable evaluation framework, the paper contributes to the applied literature on public investment appraisal in healthcare and offers practical insights for policymakers involved in the prioritization of large-scale health infrastructure projects.
Keywords: Cost-benefit Analysis; Healthcare Policy; Investment Prioritization; Multi-criteria Analysis; Public Investment