JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The central objective of policymakers and health managers is efficiency in the delivery of healthcare. With frequent reports of global economic crises, there is a need to continuously measure the performance of various sectors including health. This can inform the decision-making process towards allocating scarce resources with the aim of maximizing output.

Objective:

The purpose of this study is to determine the technical efficiency of public sector district hospitals in South African Province; KwaZulu-Natal to provide information that will assist in policy formulation that may assist in more efficient resource allocation decisions.

Methods:

This is a health system research based on a quantitative research approach. All the 38 public district hospitals (DH) in the 11 Municipalities of the province will be included in this study. The Data for the study will include inputs of hospitals operation that contribute towards consequent outputs. The input data will include information such as the number of health professionals (doctors, nurses and other personnel) and the number of hospital beds while the output data will include information such as outpatient visits and number of admissions/discharge. Data type to be included will be determined by data availability and it will be uniform for all facilities. Data for each facility for a three-year period; 2014/2015, 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 will be obtained from the district health information system (DHIS), basic accounting system (BAS) and personnel salary system (PERSAL) database of South Africa. Based on the information gathered, a model framework that can be used in improving the technical efficiency of public districts hospitals in South Africa will be developed. Technical efficiency will be determined using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and factors influencing efficiency will be computed using Stata statistical package.

Results:

Report on technical efficiency of health facilities in sub-Saharan African Region as obtained from the systematic review. Estimated technical efficiencies of selected district hospitals and factor influencing their efficiencies. The study is currently at the data collection, data input, and analysis stages.

Conclusions:

Findings from this study can add to tools available to policymakers, health planners and managers in making decisions about resource allocation in the healthcare system. Also, these findings will be disseminated electronically and in print.