Efficiency in Public Provincial and District Hospitals in Kenya. A Stochastic Cost Frontieh. Approach:

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to determine the level of efficiency for district hospitals and the provincial hospitals. Second objective is to determine the various inputs used in producing the health care and lastly the thesis to develops indicators for measuring the performance of the district and provincial hospitals in Kenya. A stochastic cost function for hospital was estimated. The mean technical efficiency for provincial hospital is 64.4 % while that of the district is about 54.2 %. The efficiency level of the whole hospital system is 55 %. The stochastic cost frontier function indicates that there is potential to improve on quality of care without infecting additional resources in the hospitals. This is important given the financial constraint that the Ministry of Health is currently going through. Finally it is desirable to replicate this study to include the health centers so as to access the problems, its causes and possible efficiency savings.