Improving Productivity Productivity management assumes that hospitals want to continue improving the ratios of outputs to inputs; that is, they want to become more efficient and cost effective. Achieving this requires a plan for enhancing productivity. Productivity can improve in one of four ways: 1. Output expands with no change in inputs. 2. Output increases with a decrease in inputs. 3. Inputs are reduced, downsized, or streamlined with no change in outputs. 4. A technology or process breakthrough eliminates some inputs with no change in outputs.