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Accounting for quality in the measurement of hospital performance: evidence from Costa Rica

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  • Pablo Arocena
  • Ariadna García‐Prado

Abstract

This paper provides insights into how Costa Rican public hospitals responded to the pressure for increased efficiency and quality introduced by the reforms carried out over the period 1997–2001. To that purpose we compute a generalized output distance function by means of non‐parametric mathematical programming to construct a productivity index, which accounts for productivity changes while controlling for quality of care. Our results show an improvement in hospital performance mainly driven by quality increases. The adoption of management contracts seems to have contributed to such enhancement, more notably for small hospitals. Further, productivity growth is primarily due to technical and scale efficiency change rather than technological change. A number of policy implications are drawn from these results. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Pablo Arocena & Ariadna García‐Prado, 2007. "Accounting for quality in the measurement of hospital performance: evidence from Costa Rica," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(7), pages 667-685, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:16:y:2007:i:7:p:667-685
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.1204
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Alexander Karmann & Felix Roesel, 2017. "Hospital Policy and Productivity – Evidence from German States," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(12), pages 1548-1565, December.
    2. Giménez, Víctor & Prieto, William & Prior, Diego & Tortosa-Ausina, Emili, 2019. "Evaluation of efficiency in Colombian hospitals: An analysis for the post-reform period," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 20-35.
    3. Manh D. Pham & Valentin Zelenyuk, 2017. "Convexity, Disposability and Returns to Scale in Production Analysis," CEPA Working Papers Series WP042017, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    4. Davutyan, Nurhan & Bilsel, Murat & Tarcan, Menderes, 2015. "Migration, Risk-Adjusted Mortality, Varieties of Congestion and Patient Satisfaction in Turkish Provincial General Hospitals," Data Envelopment Analysis Journal, now publishers, vol. 1(2), pages 135-169, July.
    5. Ana Rodriguez-Alvarez & Eder Alonso-Iglesias, 2024. "The cost of readmissions in hospitals: the case of the Spanish public hospitals," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    6. Obure, Carol Dayo & Jacobs, Rowena & Guinness, Lorna & Mayhew, Susannah & Vassall, Anna, 2016. "Does integration of HIV and sexual and reproductive health services improve technical efficiency in Kenya and Swaziland? An application of a two-stage semi parametric approach incorporating quality me," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 147-156.
    7. Cheng, Gang & Zervopoulos, Panagiotis D., 2014. "Estimating the technical efficiency of health care systems: A cross-country comparison using the directional distance function," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 238(3), pages 899-910.
    8. Davutyan, Nurhan & Bilsel, Murat & Tarcan, Menderes, 2012. "Risk-Adjusted Mortality, varieties of congestion and patient satisfaction in Turkish provincial general hospitals," MPRA Paper 37437, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Davis, Peter & Milne, Barry & Parker, Karl & Hider, Phil & Lay-Yee, Roy & Cumming, Jackie & Graham, Patrick, 2013. "Efficiency, effectiveness, equity (E3). Evaluating hospital performance in three dimensions," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(1), pages 19-27.
    10. Iablonskii, K. & Fedotov, Y., 2015. "Organizational performance measurement of healthcare organizations," Working Papers 6422, Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg State University.
    11. Monica Giancotti & Annamaria Guglielmo & Marianna Mauro, 2017. "Efficiency and optimal size of hospitals: Results of a systematic search," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(3), pages 1-40, March.
    12. Alonso, José M. & Clifton, Judith & Díaz-Fuentes, Daniel, 2015. "The impact of New Public Management on efficiency: An analysis of Madrid's hospitals," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(3), pages 333-340.
    13. Guccio, C. & Lisi, D. & Martorana, M.F. & Pignataro, G., 2020. "Incorporating quality in the efficiency assessment of hospitals using a generalized directional distance function approach," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 20/17, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    14. José M. Cordero & Agustín García-García & Enrique Lau-Cortés & Cristina Polo, 2021. "Efficiency and Productivity Change of Public Hospitals in Panama: Do Management Schemes Matter?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-21, August.
    15. Simon Eckermann & Tim Coelli, 2008. "Including quality attributes in a model of health care efficiency: A net benefit approach," CEPA Working Papers Series WP032008, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    16. Juan Piedra-Peña & Diego Prior, 2023. "Analyzing the effect of health reforms on the efficiency of Ecuadorian public hospitals," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 361-392, September.
    17. Ferreira, D.C. & Marques, R.C., 2019. "Do quality and access to hospital services impact on their technical efficiency?," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 218-236.
    18. Zhang, Cai Wen & Yang, Yuanhui, 2023. "Appraisal of regional hospital efficiency and healthcare quality in China: Impacts of subsidies and marketization," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    19. Eckermann, Simon & Coelli, Tim, 2013. "Including quality attributes in efficiency measures consistent with net benefit: Creating incentives for evidence based medicine in practice," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 159-168.
    20. Siciliani, Luigi & Stanciole, Anderson & Jacobs, Rowena, 2009. "Do waiting times reduce hospital costs?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 771-780, July.
    21. Murat Bilsel & Nurhan Davutyan, 2014. "Hospital efficiency with risk adjusted mortality as undesirable output: the Turkish case," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 221(1), pages 73-88, October.
    22. Yang, Jinqiu & Zeng, Wu, 2014. "The trade-offs between efficiency and quality in the hospital production: Some evidence from Shenzhen, China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 166-184.
    23. Pham, Manh D. & Zelenyuk, Valentin, 2019. "Weak disposability in nonparametric production analysis: A new taxonomy of reference technology sets," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 274(1), pages 186-198.
    24. Firdaus Hafidz & Tim Ensor & Sandy Tubeuf, 2018. "Efficiency Measurement in Health Facilities: A Systematic Review in Low- and Middle-Income Countries," Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 465-480, August.
    25. Cruz-Cázares, Claudio & Bayona-Sáez, Cristina & García-Marco, Teresa, 2013. "You can’t manage right what you can’t measure well: Technological innovation efficiency," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(6), pages 1239-1250.

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