Empirical Analysis of Factors Influencing Healthcare Efficiency among Emerging Countries

Numerous factors, including inefficient utilization of healthcare resources have been attributed to the poor health outcome. The study aims to compare the efficiency of health expenses and its determining factors in the emerging economies based on their income levels. Data for the study is extracted from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators for 21 countries covering the period of 2000 to 2018. Analysis of the research involves two stages. Stage one computes the efficiency scores, whereas second stage examines factors affecting health efficiency by employing the Tobit regression and Simar-Wilson regression test to confirm the results. The Tobit result shows that research and development (R&D) and physicians enhanced health efficiency at the main panel, lower-middle-income, upper-middle-income, and high-income countries. Corruption remained negative with education showing mixed results. The interaction between research and development and physicians increases health efficiency in all the panels. Health research must be a policy focus if efficiency is to be achieved by the emerging economies.

O credenciamento como ferramenta de apoio na auditoria em saúde

Objetivos: identificar os principais problemas enfrentados pela auditoria em saúde e demostrar como o processo de credenciamento impacta diretamente na qualidade da assistência prestada. Método: revisão integrativa da literatura, realizada em duas bases de dados e uma biblioteca virtual, de acesso aberto, tendo como critério de inclusão: responder à questão norteadora. A amostra final foi composta de 14 artigos. Resultados: da síntese das evidências, emergiram oito categorias aos quais demonstraram a ausência dos seguintes critérios: anotações de enfermagem, definição de protocolos, avaliação da qualidade, satisfação do usuário, definição de materiais e medicamentos, adoção de pacotes e requisitos mínimos necessários a contratação. Conclusão: o serviço de auditoria desempenha papel vital na elaboração dos processos de credenciamento, sendo importante que os gestores de contratos e os auditores estejam interligados em prol de identificar os pontos fracos e dirimir as deficiências, buscando contribuir para que a organização atinja o máximo de sua eficiência.Palavras-chaves: Auditoria; Qualidade; Saúde; Eficiência. ABSTRACTObjectives: to identify the main problems faced by the health audit and to demonstrate how the accreditation process directly impacts the quality of care provided. Method: integrative literature review, carried out in two databases and a virtual library, open access, with the inclusion criterion: answering the guiding question. The final sample consisted of 14 articles. Results: from the synthesis of the evidence, eight categories emerged which demonstrated the absence of the following criteria: nursing notes, definition of protocols, quality assessment, user satisfaction, definition of materials and medicines, adoption of packages and minimum requirements necessary for contracting. Conclusion: the audit service plays a vital role in the elaboration of the accreditation processes, being important that the contract managers and the auditors are interconnected in order to identify the weaknesses and resolve the deficiencies, seeking to contribute to the organization reaches maximum efficiency. Keywords: Audit, Accreditation, Health, Efficiency.

Dynamic Linkages Among Energy Consumption, Environment and Health Sustainability: Evidence from the Different Income Level Countries

Environment pollution was closely related to human health. The energy consumption is one of the important sources of environmental pollution in the development of economy. This paper used undesirable two-stage meta-frontier DDF (distance difference function) data envelopment analysis model to explore the impact of environment pollutants from energy consumption on the mortality of children and the aged, survival rate of 65 years old and health expenditure efficiency in 27 high income countries, 21 upper middle income countries, and 16 lower middle income countries from 2010 to 2014. High income countries had higher efficiency of energy and health than middle income countries in general. But whether in high income or middle income countries, the efficiency of non-renewable energy is higher than renewable energy. There was much room for both high income countries and middle income countries to improve renewable energy efficiency. Besides, middle income countries need to improve the efficiency of non-renewable energy and reduce pollutant emissions per unit of GDP. In terms of health efficiency, upper middle income countries performed worse than lower income countries. This phenomenon might indicate there was a U-shaped relationship between health efficiency and income level. Upper income countries should pay more attention to the environmental and health problems and cross the U-shaped turning point. The contribution of this article was to consider the heterogeneous performance of energy efficiency, environmental efficiency, and health efficiency under the influence of income level differences, and found that there might be a U-shaped relationship between health efficiency and income level.

The Energy Efficiency and Public Health in the ASEAN Plus Three Cooperation

This study pays more attention to the energy consumption saving, environmental pollution, and health efficiency improvement. We employ the Slack-based measure of Dynamic network Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model (DNSBM) to assess the impact of forestry area on annual and overall energy and health efficiency in 2 intertemporal stages, and also put forward on direction and magnitude to be improved respect to the slack variables. For the empirical study, this study employs the 13 countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Plus Three Cooperation (hereinafter referred to as APT) during 2011-2015. From the empirical evidence, it is not easy to raise gross domestic product while reducing energy consumption and PM2.5 emissions to improve energy efficiency. What makes people neglect is the impact of reduced forestry area on health efficiency. Optimistically, all economies are able to adopt measures from policy and technical perspectives, for instance, appropriately adjust energy-related policies, energetically develop innovative energy technologies, and preserve forestry areas, to create a harmonious atmosphere featuring economic development, environmental conservation, and national health and well-being.

The Dynamic Analysis of the Pollutant Emissions Impact on Human Health in China Industries Based on the Meta-Frontier DEA

Environmental pollutant emissions have become increasingly serious, and the resulting human health problems have become the focus of social attention. In this study, 30 provinces in China were selected as the object of study, SO2, NOX (nitrogen oxide), and PM2.5 were taken as undesirable outputs, and a meta-frontier dynamic data envelopment analysis model was adopted to avoid the disadvantages of static analysis. In this paper, energy efficiency, environmental pollution efficiency, and human health efficiency were incorporated into a unified analysis framework by constructing a two-stage model of the production and health stages. The study shows that the total efficiency score of nine provinces and cities, including Beijing, is 1. However, the score of two-stage efficiency in most provinces, such as Anhui, is less than 1, and the score of production efficiency is higher than that of health efficiency. In the second stage, the average efficiency of health expenditure and medical staff input is low, so it is necessary to make targeted improvement. In this regard, it is necessary for the government to increase health expenditure to improve the overall level of health efficiency.