Improving Resource Allocation Efficiency in Health Care Delivery Systems
In their article, Alkaabi, Halim, and Mahmoud (2006) suggest a new strategy for improving resource management and efficiency of the heath care institutions. The core idea of this strategy is to keep the stakeholders involved in the model development and implementation. Therefore, instead of the objectives identified in advance, the modeling process should be governed by the stakeholders’ views and suggestions. Additionally, the strategy provides various techniques for evaluating the performance, which helps to identify the most and the least useful activities and tactics. The approach suggested in the article has already been tested in one of the emergency departments in Abu Dhabi. The implementation resulted in the rise of efficiency, more reasonable use of both material and human resources, and improved patient outcomes, particularly the decreased duration of patients’ stay.
Measuring technical and scale efficiency of public hospitals in the UAE using the DEA method: A pilot study
Although a lot of costs are spent to provide the health care to the citizens in the United Arab Emirates, not all of them are spent efficiently, since not all of the health care institutions in the country are efficient. Despite the evidence of this fact, not many studies have been made in this field. In their article, Djerdjouri, Mehailia, and Rampal (2013) told how they managed to calculate the technical efficiency of the UAE hospitals in the terms of mathematical modeling method, called the DEA. 18 different hospitals have been chosen for a sample. As a result, the authors reveal that approximately 45% of the hospitals are inefficient. Additionally, the article includes the technical efficiency levels and the suggestions regarding possible input changes, which can lead to particular output improvements.
Frontier efficiency of hospitals in United Arab Emirates: An application of data envelopment analysis
The article describes a study by Mahate and Hamidi (2015) aimed to examine the technical efficiency of hospitals in the UAE. Efficiency has been estimated using techniques of the Data Envelopment Analysis and BCC and CCR models. As an input data, the researchers used the number of doctors, nurses, administrative staff, and so on; as an output data, they examined the number of patients, the duration of patients’ stay, etc. The study shows that there is no difference in efficiency between private and public health care instructions. Additionally, this value does not depend on the territorial factor – it is nearly the same in all of the Emirates. However, the average technical efficiency value reveals that approximately 41% (according to BCC model) to 52% (according to CCR model) of the resources are located improperly. The solution to this problem can double the efficiency and, consequently, improve the patient outcomes.
References
Alkaabi, R., Halim, A.O.A., & Mahmoud, S. (2006). Improving Resource Allocation Efficiency in Health Care Delivery Systems. Electrical and Computer Engineering, 5, 1389-1394.
Djerdjouri, M., Mehailia, A., & Rampal, R. (2013). Measuring technical and scale efficiency of public hospitals in the UAE using the DEA method: A pilot study. International Journal of Arts and Commerce, 2(4), 1-10.
Mahate, A., & Hamidi, S. (2015). Frontier efficiency of hospitals in United Arab Emirates: An application of data envelopment analysis. Journal of Hospital Administration, 5(1), 7-17.