Health systems efficiency in Eastern Mediterranean Region: a data envelopment analysis.

Area of Science:

• Health Policy and Management
• Health Economics
• Comparative Health Systems Analysis

Background:

• Effective healthcare management is crucial for public policy and welfare, as poor management leads to significant resource waste.
• Optimizing resource allocation in healthcare is a key challenge for nations worldwide.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify Eastern Mediterranean countries most effective in allocating health resources.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of Iran's health system relative to its regional peers.

Main Methods:

• Employed input-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models to assess technical efficiency in 2018.
• Utilized data from the World Health Organization's Global Health Observatory.
• Key inputs included physician density, hospital beds, and health expenditure (as % of GDP); outputs were infant survival rate and life expectancy.

Main Results:

• Identified Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates as having efficient health systems.
• Classified Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia as inefficient.
• Efficient countries varied in input levels; Iran and Morocco achieved comparable outputs with lower inputs.

Conclusions:

• Efficient health systems can be categorized by input levels, with some (e.g., Bahrain, Qatar) utilizing high inputs for high outputs.
• Countries like Iran and Morocco demonstrate efficiency by achieving significant outputs with comparatively lower resource inputs.
• Inefficiency, as seen in Saudi Arabia, can result from high health expenditure without corresponding improvements in life expectancy or infant survival rates.