Explaining the efficiency of local health departments in the US: an exploratory analysis

    Authors

    K. Mukherjee; R. E. Santerre;N. J. Zhang

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Health Care Manag. Sci.

    Keywords

    Public health; Efficiency; Data envelopment analysis; DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS; PUBLIC-HEALTH; TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY; CARE; SERVICES; MODELS; DEA; DETERMINANTS; EXPENDITURES; INFERENCE; Health Policy & Services

    Abstract

    No study to date has analyzed the efficiency at which local health departments (LHDs) produce public health services. As a result, this study employs data envelopment analysis (DEA) to explore the relative technical efficiency of LHDs operating in the United States using 2005 data. The DEA indicates that the typical LHD operates with about 28% inefficiency although inefficiency runs as high as 69% for some LHDs. Multiple regression analysis reveals that more centralized and urban LHDs are less efficient at producing local public health services. The findings also suggest that efficiency is higher for LHDs that produce a greater variety of services internally and rely more on internal funding. However, because this is the first study of LHD efficiency and some shortcomings exist with the available data, we are reluctant to draw strong policy conclusions from the analysis.

    Journal Title

    Health Care Management Science

    Volume

    13

    Issue/Number

    4

    Publication Date

    1-1-2010

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    378

    Last Page

    387

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000283304700007

    ISSN

    1386-9620

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