Technical efficiency of ghanaian health facilities before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

TL;DR

This study examines how efficient Ghanaian health facilities were before and during the pandemic, finding that some became more efficient despite increased challenges.

Contribution

The study uses a panel dataset to analyze efficiency changes in Ghanaian health facilities during the pandemic, filling a gap in pre- and post-COVID-19 evidence.

Findings

Health facilities saw a 26% increase in inputs and a 34% reduction in output during the pandemic.

Smaller health facilities were less likely to be efficient compared to larger ones.

Despite the pandemic, 39% of health facilities were efficient in 2020, up from 32% in 2019.

Abstract

Understanding the technical efficiency of health facilities is essential for an optimal allocation of scarce resources to primary health sectors. The COVID-19 pandemic may have further undermined levels of efficiency in low-resource settings. This study takes advantage of 2019 and 2020 data on characteristics of health facilities, health services inputs and output to examine the levels and changes in efficiency of Ghanaian health facilities. The current study by using a panel dataset contributes to existing evidence, which is mostly based on pre-COVID-19 and single-period data.

The analysis is based on a panel dataset including 151 Ghanaian health facilities. Data Envelopement Analysis (DEA) technique was used to estimate the level and changes in efficiency of health facilities across two years..

The results show a net increase of 26% in inputs, influenced mostly by increases in temporary non-clinical staff (131%) and attrition of temporary clinical staff and permanent non-clinical staff, 40% and 54% respectively. There was also a net reduction in output of 34%, driven by a reduction in in-patient days (37%), immunization (11%), outpatients visits and laboratory test of 9%. Nowithstanding the COVID-19 pandemic, the results indicate that 59 (39%) of sampled health facilities in 2020 were efficient, compared to 48 (32%) in 2019. The results also indicate that smaller-sized health facilities were less likely to be efficient compared to relatively bigger health facilities.

Based on the findings, it will be essential to examine factors that accounted for efficiency improvements in some health facilities, to enable health facilities lagging behind to learn from those on the efficiency frontier. In addition, the findings emphasise the need for CHAG to work with health facility managers to optimise inputs allocation through a redistribution of staff. Most importantly, the findings are suggestive of the resilience of CHAG health facilities in responding to a health shock such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Figures