Efficiency measurement of health care: a review of non‐parametric methods and applications

Applications to hospitals and to the wider context of general health care are reviewed and the empirical evidence is that public rather than private provision is more efficient.

Abstract

There has been increasing interest in measuring the productive performance of health care services, since the mid-1980s. This paper reviews this literature and, in particular, the concept and measurement of efficiency and productivity. Concerning measurement, we focus on the use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a technique particularly appropriate when multiple outputs are produced from multiple inputs. Applications to hospitals and to the wider context of general health care are reviewed and the empirical evidence from both the USA and Europe (EU) is that public rather than private provision is more efficient.