Data Envelopment Analysis for estimating Health Care Efficiency in the Southwest Teaching Hospitals in Niger
Keywords:
Data Envelopment Analysis, Healthcare efficiency, TOBIT model, technical efficiencyAbstract
Health care services in Nigerian teaching hospitals have been considered as less desirable. In the same vein, studies on the proper application of model in explicating the factors that influence the efficiency of health care delivery are limited. This study therefore deployed Data Envelopment Analysis in estimating health care efficiency in six public teaching hospitals located in southwest Nigeria. To do this, the study gathered secondary data from annual statistical returns of six public teaching hospitals in southwest, Nigeria, spanned five years (2010 - 2014). The data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical tools. The Inferential statistical tools used included Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) with the aid of DEAP software version 2.1, Tobit model with the aid of STATA version 12.0. The results revealed that the teaching hospitals in Southwest Nigeria were not fully efficient. The average scale inefficiency was estimated to be approximately 18%. Result from the Tobit estimates showed that insufficient number of professional health workers, especially doctors, pharmacist and laboratory technicians engineers and beds space for patient use were responsible for the observed inefficiency in health care delivery, in southwest Nigeria. This study has implication for decisions on effective monitoring of the entire health system towards enhancing quality health care service delivery which would enhance health system efficiency.References
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