Technical Efficiency of Maternity Units of Regional Referral Hospitals in Uganda

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to estimate technical and scale efficiency whileinvestigating determinants of technical efficiency in Uganda ' s hospitals. A panelof 14 maternity units in the regional referral hospitals for over the period 2012-2016 is considered for empirical analysis. Nonparametric Data EnvelopmentAnalysis approach is used in measurement of hospital technical efficiency. Theresults indicate existence of varying degrees of technical and scale efficiency inthe maternity units in the hospitals at the individual and regional levels.Performance of the regional referral hospital ' s maternity units demonstratedexistence of scale and management problems at different levels. Results furtherdepicted existence of increasing returns to scale. Previous studies focused on the health sector in totality, however this paper only looks at efficiency in thematernity units in regional referral hospitals. Results point to the need forexpansion in the size of the units through internal growth and improvement inmanagement. Secondly increasing funding to regional referral hospitals isnecessary for technical efficiency improvement to grantee reduction in maternaland infant death and improvement in the maternal health management inregional referral hospitals in Uganda.  Keywords: Data Envelopment Analysis, Technical Efficiency, Maternity Units.