Econometric analysis of efficiency among public health center III facilities in kigezi subregion Uganda

Abstract

The scarcity of healthcare resources and shortfalls in budget allocations for the health sector in the Kigezi subregion calls for efficient utilization of inputs, measurement, and reporting of the performance of Health Center III facilities. The purpose of the study is to answer the question; what are the efficiency and slack levels among facilities? Data from a sample of 30 facilities containing health inputs and outputs were obtained from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics for the financial year 2022/2023. A constant returns to scale output-oriented data envelopment analysis technique is adopted for the analysis. Results reveal that 47% of the facilities were technically efficient, and the score averaged 72%. This implies that the facilities need to improve resource utilization by 28% to become technically efficient. Mean scale efficiency stood at 97.75%, implying that 2.25% of the scale-inefficient facilities waste more input resources due to their size. Slack values were registered. There were 16 benchmark facilities identified for reference because of their best practices. Inefficient healthcare facilities should be made to improve their technical and scale efficiency levels by reducing the resources employed as well as increasing the output that they produce.