The Efficiency of Provincial Medical Care Services in China

摘要

The last three decades evidenced the rapid growth of China's economy. Meanwhile, Chinese residents' health and medical conditions have been significantly improved. Based on the medical & health data of 31 provincial districts in mainland China published by China Health Statistics Yearbook in 2015, we study the efficiency of medical and health services among residents in different provincial districts and the external factors influencing these medical efficiencies. We consider the average life expectancy and the perinatal survival rate as the two outputs of a region's health & medical services, and the region's annual per capita medical expenditure, the number of health workers per one thousand residents, the number of hospital beds per one thousand residents as the three inputs of health & medical services in the region. We use the output-oriented CRS data envelopment analysis model to analyze the efficiency of health & medical services in various regions. The result shows that, among the 31 provincial districts in mainland China, only Anhui, Jiangxi, Hainan, and Xizang reach the efficiency of 100%. The average efficiency among these 31 provincial districts is 85.1%. We further use the second-stage linear regression analysis model to study the external causes of the variation in efficiency across regions. We find that the higher the proportion of health care workers other than practicing doctors or registered nurses, the higher the efficiency of medical & health services in the region. At the same time, the longer the average length of hospital stay, the lower the efficiency of medical & health services in the region. Finally, the proportion of sex among residents in a region has an impact on the efficiency of health care services - the health care services in areas with more male residents are more efficient.