ArticleHealth economics review2020
Determinants of Technical Efficiency in Public Hospitals: The Case of Saudi Arabia.
Article in Health economics review, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Approach in inputs & outputs selection of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) efficiency measurement in hospitals: A systematic review.PloS one · 2024Pooled it
- Evaluating Hospital Efficiency and Productivity: A Bootstrap-Corrected DEA and Malmquist Analysis.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Evaluation of the efficiency of county-level medical and health services under the background of county medical community policy: a case study of Sanming, China.Health economics review · 2026Article
- Population health management in Saudi Arabia: A narrative review of system undergoing reform.Dialogues in health · 2026Review
- Technical efficiency analysis of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund for the funded primary health care facilities in Nigeria.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- The efficiency of secondary-level hospitals in hard-to-reach and non-hard-to-reach areas in Bangladesh: a data envelopment analysis approach.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Evaluating the efficiency of primary health care institutions in China: an improved three-stage data envelopment analysis approach.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- Approximating the influence of external factors on the technical efficiency score of hospital care: evidence from the federal states of Germany.Health economics review · 2023Article
- Public sector's efficiency as a reflection of governance quality, an European Union study.PloS one · 2023Article
- Analysis of factors influencing technical efficiency of public district hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa.Human resources for health · 2022Article
- A Cohort Study of the Relationship between Active Collaboration and Operational Efficiency in Japanese Public Health Institutions.JMA journal · 2022Article
- Article
- Factors Influencing the Efficiency of Public Hospitals in Saudi Arabia: A Qualitative Study Exploring Stakeholders' Perspectives and Suggestions for Improvement.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveIn this study, we investigate the effect of the external environmental and institutional factors on the efficiency and the performance of the public hospitals affiliated to the Ministry of Health (MOH) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). We estimate the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of catchment populations that explain the demand for health services.
methodsWe apply descriptive analysis to explore what external factors (demographic and socioeconomic factors) can explain the observed differences in technical efficiency scores. We use Spearman's rank correlation, multivariate Tobit regression and Two-part model to measure the impact of the explanatory variables (i.e. population density, nationality, gender, age groups, economic status, health status, medical interventions and geographic location) on the efficiency scores.
resultsThe analysis shows that the external factors had a significant influence on efficiency scores. We find significant associations between hospitals efficiency scores and number of populations in the catchment area, percentage of children (0-5 years old), the prevalence of infectious diseases, and the number of prescriptions dispensed from hospital's departments. Also, the scores significantly associate with the number of populations who faced financial hardships during medical treatments, and those received financial support from social administration. That indicates the hospitals that serve more patients in previous characteristics are relatively more technically efficient.
conclusionsThe environmental and institutional factors have a crucial effect on efficiency and performance in public hospitals. In these regards, we suggested improvement of health policies and planning in respect to hospital efficiency and resource allocation, which consider the different demographic, socioeconomic and health status of the catchment populations (e.g., population density, poverty, health indicators and services utilization). The MOH should pay more attention to ensure appropriate allocation mechanisms of health resources and improve utilization of health services among the target populations, for securing efficient and equitable health services.
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