A measure of performance over a fixed period of time, or output over input.
The relationship between the number of units of service provided or products produced per unit of labor (or other cost) required, per unit of time. Productivity is said to increase in a hospital, for example, when patient stay can be reduced for a given illness with no sacrifice in quality and no increase in labor. On a larger scale, a hospital is sometimes considered more productive than another when it uses fewer employees, or has a lower cost per day.