Quantitative Analysis Of Efficiency Of Public Health Care Facilities In Nigeria A Study Of Ogun And Lagos States

Abstract

Public hospitals are one of the key determinants of a nation’s health system performance. This study, therefore, is focussed on the question of operational efficiency of public health facilities at the secondary healthcare levels of the Nigerian health system and the factors that impinge on their performances efficiency. The study based on survey, administrative and operational data on public hospitals in Lagos and Ogun States utilised management science/operations research methodology of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to derive the efficiency ratings of these health facilities. Furthermore, Tobit regression model was applied in the second stage of analysis to unearth factors that weigh on the performances of these health facilities. Survey results indicate that there was ignorance of the concept of efficiency in the minds of both policy makers and health professionals and that substantial degree of inefficiency (resource wastage) existed in the hospital system of these states. 44.8% of public hospitals in Ogun State are technically inefficient with an average efficiency scores of 70%; and if  total efficiency scores are considered, 65% of public hospitals in Lagos State are technically inefficient with efficiency scores ranging from 13%-99.6%. Indeed, a significant proportion of the efficient facilities in these states are both weakly efficient and scale inefficient with 60% of Lagos State hospitals and 72.4 % in  State Ogun being scale inefficient; and increasing returns to scale being the predominant scale type. In addition, beds turnover rate was found to positively impact on efficiency (β5=0.005, p