Comparative efficiency of national health systems: cross national econometric analysis
TLDR
Increasing the resources for health systems is critical to improving health in poor countries, but important gains can be made in most countries by using existing resources more efficiently.Abstract:
Objective: To improve the evidence base for health policy by devising a method to measure and monitor the performance of health systems. Design: Estimation of the relation between levels of population health and the inputs used to produce health. Setting: 191 countries. Main outcome measure: Health system efficiency (performance). Results: Estimated efficiency varied from nearly fully efficient to nearly fully inefficient. Countries with a history of civil conflict or high prevalence of HIV and AIDS were less efficient. Performance increased with health expenditure per capita. Conclusions: Increasing the resources for health systems is critical to improving health in poor countries, but important gains can be made in most countries by using existing resources more efficiently. What is already known on this topic Evidence on the effectiveness of health system reforms is scarce Studies have not used a consistent framework for specifying goals or measuring outcomes What this study adds Countries with the best levels of health do not always have efficient health systems Efficiency is related to expenditure on health per capita, especially at low expenditure The methods of measuring performance provide a basis for identifying policies that improve health and for monitoring reformsread more
Citations
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Health metrics and evaluation: strengthening the science
TL;DR: In depth topics with major scientific challenges and institutional and cultural barriers that are slowing the development of the field are explored.
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Generalized cost-effectiveness analysis for national-level priority-setting in the health sector
TL;DR: Generalized CEA sets out to overcome a number of barriers to the appropriate use of cost-effectiveness information at the regional and country level and serves as a starting point for additional analyses of the trade-off between the efficiency of interventions in producing health and their impact on other key outcomes such as reducing inequalities and improving the health of the poor.
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Assessing health system performance in developing countries: A review of the literature
TL;DR: This paper proposes a framework for the assessment of health system performance and reviews the literature on indicators currently in use to measure performance using online medical and public health databases, organized into three categories: effectiveness, equity, and efficiency.
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Conceptual frameworks for health systems performance: a quest for effectiveness, quality, and improvement
TL;DR: This paper explores the conceptual bases, effectiveness and its indicators, as well as the quality improvement dynamics of the performance frameworks of the UK, Canada, Australia, US, World Health Organization, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
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