Effects of Changes in Public Policy on Efficiency and Productivity of General Hospitals in Vietnam
The health sector reform programme which began inVietnam in 1989
in order to improve the efficiency of the health system has altered the way in
which Vietnamese hospitals operate. The programme put the spotlight on input
savings. This study aims to examine the relative efficiency of hospitals during
the health reform process and assess – by looking at the relative efficiency of
hospitals – the effects of the regulatory changes. The study employs the DEA
two-stage approach referring to data from 101 general public hospitals over the
period 1998-2006. The study revealed that there was evidence of improvement
in the productivity of Vietnamese hospitals over the period 1998-2006, with a
progress in total factor productivity of 1.4% per year. Furthermore, the
differences in hospital efficiency can be attributed to both the regulatory
changes and hospital-specific characteristics. The user fees and autonomy
measures were found to increase technical efficiency. Provincial hospitals were
revealed to be more technically efficient than their central counterparts and
hospitals located in the North East, South East and Mekong River Delta regions
performed better than hospitals from other regions.