Technical and Scale Efficiency of Hospitals in Kisumu County Kenya

Abstract

This study sought to ascertain the technical and scale efficiency of hospitals in Kisumu County. More specifically, the study aimed towards two specific objectives: to analyze the technical and scale efficiency of public and private hospitals in Kisumu County for the years between 2014 and 2017 and to determine the factors influencing efficiencies of public and private health facilities in Kisumu County. Using a primary data collected through semi-structured interviews and questionnaires as well as the VRS-INPUT Oriented DEA model and CRS-Output oriented DEA model, the study findings shows that out of the 32 of hospitals in Kisumu County analyzed under the VRS-INPUT Oriented DEA model, 32.25 % of the hospitals were fully efficient with efficiency score of 100. Equally, the study established that 50 % of the hospitals selected in the study area were found to be efficient in their input use, while 50% were found to be operating inefficiently in output and input variables. For the second objectives, the study established that the number of delivery care, Number of women receiving postnatal care within 48 hours of childbirth (PNCs), the number of women with three prenatal examinations completed as well as the number of medical terminations of pregnancy (MPTs) were statistically significant in influencing the input oriented model. Equally, we also established that the number of delivery care, Number of women receiving postnatal care within 48 hours of childbirth (PNCs) as well as the number of women with three prenatal examinations completed as was statistically significant in influencing the output-oriented model. The study thus recommends that hospitals should maintain an appropriate size of delivery care in their hospitals to ensure that high number delivery care does not jeopardize their efficiency in their endeavors to optimize their efficiency. Equally, the management must always keep assessing the effects of delivery care on their efficiency to be able to take appropriate output efficiency decisions. Further research would be done to focus more on other alternative factors that affect efficiency of hospitals