Relative efficiency in rural primary health care: an application of data envelopment analysis

This study applied data envelopment analysis (DEA) to the evaluation of rural primary health care programs, which are known to be very heterogeneous. DEA is a mathematical programming technique that optimizes the relative efficiency ratio of current inputs over current outputs for each decision-making unit (DMU). It produces a summary scalar efficiency ratio for each DMU and identifies the amount of inefficiency. The data came from the National Evaluation of Rural Primary Health Care Programs. Despite the demands of the software used for homogeneous units and nonzero values, the efficiency analysis was useful to the evaluation. It assessed multiple inputs and multiple outputs simultaneously, and identified directly those units that are performing efficiently or inefficiently when compared to specific peer programs. This then allowed us to compare this efficient-inefficient classification with other data, first, to verify the classification and, second, to assist with the evaluation. DEA can contribute to the evaluation of heterogeneous health programs, especially when used in conjunction with other methods of analysis.