Błażej Łyszczarz
Zdrowie Publiczne i Zarządzanie, Tom 8, Numer 1, 2010, s. 121 - 136
Ownership structure and provider efficiency
The purpose of the paper is to investigate the relationship between ownership structure of health care providers and technical efficiency of health care in the regions of Poland. A model built with the use of data envelopment analysis methodology is used for the estimation of efficiency of the health care production process in the regions. The inputs of the process are densities of doctors and nurses as well as per capita expenditures for health care in each of the regions; the outputs are numbers of ambulatory and stationary care services produced. Generally, the results show that the regions with a higher proportion of non-public providers are characterized by a higher technical efficiency, however the results are not unambiguous. The correlation between efficiency and the development of the non-public sector is statistically significant only in the case of ambulatory care providers, while it is insignificant when the proportion of non-public hospitals is considered.