COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF PRIVATE AND PUBLIC CLINICS AND HOSPITALS IN THE CENTRAL REGION OF GHANA

ABSTRACT In Ghana healthcare institutions are not anticipated to be efficient but due to the rising demands on hospital reimbursement levels, focus on efficient operations is becoming more vital. This study compared technical efficiency levels of private and public clinics and hospitals in Central Region. A sample of 34 private and public hospitals and clinics in the Central Region of Ghana was used for the study. The main estimation technique employed was the Data Envelopment Analysis, with four variable inputs and outputs. Furthermore, regression analysis was also used to identify the main determinants of technical efficiency. The analysis of the data indicates that private clinics have been more technically efficient than their public counterparts. Moreover, the public hospitals were found to be more technically efficient than the private ones. It was also noted that, even though excess input and output variables (slack) were identified for both classes of health facilities, the public clinics and hospitals had greater unutilized resources. The study proved that ownership, experience of administrators and access to clinic or hospital were the main determinants, which also affected the level of technical efficiency. The study recommends that managers and policy makers should identify the areas of inefficiencies in both inputs and outputs for effective reallocation of resources to increase the level of technical efficiency.