Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to measure the technical and scale efficiency of health centres; to evaluate changes in productivity; and to highlight possible policy implications of the results for policy makers. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is employed to assess the technical and scale efficiency and productivity change over a four year period among 17 public health centres. During the period of study, the results suggested that the public health centres in Seychelles exhibited mean overall or technical efficiency of above 93 per cent. It was also found that the overall productivity increased by 2.4 per cent over 2001 2004. Further research can be undertaken to gather data on the prices of the various inputs to facilitate an estimation of the allocative efficiency of clinics. If such an exercise were to be undertaken, researchers would also need to consider collecting data on quantities and prices of paramedical, administrative, and support staff to ensure that the analysis is more comprehensive than the study reported in this paper. Institutionalisation of efficiency monitoring would help to enhance further the already good health sector stewardship and governance.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Efficiency of Health System Units in Africa |
| Subtitle of host publication | A Data Envelopment Analysis |
| Pages | 312-336 |
| Number of pages | 25 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9789966792426 |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2013 |
Keywords
- Community health centres
- Performance measures
- Productivity rates
- Seychelles