ArticleJournal of health economics2022
Does high workload reduce the quality of healthcare? Evidence from rural Senegal.
Article in Journal of health economics, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Roles and barriers of community pharmacy professionals in the prevention and management of noncommunicable diseases in Ethiopia: a systematic review.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
- Lived experiences of health workers' job satisfaction at the health facility level in Ethiopia: a phenomenological study.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Facilitators of Blood Pressure Control Among Treated Patients in Public Clinics in Botswana.Public health challenges · 2026Article
- Facilitators and barriers to adherence to severe malaria treatment guidelines in children at Mbale Regional Referral Hospital, Uganda: a health workers' perspective.Malaria journal · 2026Article
- Emotional challenges faced by student nurses during clinical placement: A scoping review.Health SA = SA Gesondheid · 2026Review
- Clinical process quality of antenatal care in low and middle-income countries: Cross-sectional evidence from 13 countries.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Adherence to national pediatric antibiotic prescription guideline for pneumonia treatment of children 2-59 months: a retrospective chart review at a regional hospital in Rwanda.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Article
- Using causal loop diagrams to examine the interrelationships between factors influencing family planning utilisation in urban east central Uganda.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Bridging urban-rural disparities in malaria care during pregnancy in Senegal: evidence from household and health facility surveys.Infectious diseases of poverty · 2025Article
- Investigation of Endotracheal Tube Versus Laryngeal Mask Airway Emergence Times for Surgical Patients.Cureus · 2025Article
- Survey protocol: implementing Workload Indicators of Staffing Need in Iranian primary healthcare services.Primary health care research & development · 2025Article
- Impact of digital health technologies adoption on healthcare workers' performance and workload: perspective with DOI and TOE models.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- The lived experiences of postnatal mothers receiving birth companionship care in Katavi region, Tanzania: A phenomenological study.SAGE open medicine · 2025Article
- Patient's expectations and perceptions on quality of care; An evaluation using SERVQUAL gap in Kenya.PloS one · 2025Article
- Descriptive study of claims in primary care during the year 2022 in a health area of Spain.Clinics (Sao Paulo, Brazil) · 2025Article
- Assessment of knowledge, perception, and readiness for telepharmacy-assisted pharmaceutical services among young pharmacists in rural Indonesia.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2024Article
- The impact of the nurse practice environment, workload, and professional support on job outcomes and standards of care at primary health care clinics in South Africa: A structural equation model approach.International journal of nursing studies advances · 2024Article
- Precision Workforce Management for Radiographers: Monitoring and Managing Competences with an Automatic Tool.Journal of personalized medicine · 2024Article
- Comparing knowledge, attitudes, and practices in cardiovascular disease prevention and health promotion between community and hospital pharmacists in Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional study.Saudi pharmaceutical journal : SPJ : the official publication of the Saudi Pharmaceutical Society · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
There is a widely held perception that staff shortages in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) lead to excessive workloads, which in turn worsen the quality of healthcare. Yet there is little evidence supporting these claims. We use data from standardised patient visits in Senegal and determine the effect of workload on the quality of primary care by exploiting quasi-random variation in workload. We find that despite a lack of staff, average levels of workload are low. Even at times when workload is high, there is no evidence that provider effort or quality of care are significantly reduced. Our data indicate that providers operate below their production possibility frontier and have sufficient capacity to attend more patients without compromising quality. This contradicts the prevailing discourse that staff shortages are a key reason for poor quality primary care in LMICs and suggests that the origins likely lie elsewhere.
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