Evaluating the Efficiency and Determinants of Efficiency of Rural Health Centers Situated in Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

This study calculates the efficiency of Rural Health Centers (RHCs) and investigates the impact of other variables affecting the efficiency of RHCs. The study considers 29 RHCs, 13 of District Faisalabad, 9 of Toba and 7 of Jhang; a survey was conducted to collect data from each RHC for the year 2016. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model was utilized to get the scores for efficiency. Thereafter, after getting the results from DEA Tobit regression was used in the second stage. Out of the 29 Rural Health Centers, only 11 (38%) are working efficiently as compare to others. Distance from the tehsil headquarter, Distance from the road with “0” probability, Distance from private hospital with “0” probability, Behavior of the staff with “0.0064” probability and laboratory equipment’s with “0” probability, have an impact on the efficiency scores. Distance from other health facilitators, Staff’s behavior, list of medicine and equipment’s used at RHCs should be improved to increase the efficiency of RHC’s.