Regional human development index and performance of social security hospitals in Iran

Abstract

Social security is a public right and in this regard hospitals play an important role in the health sector of the society through serving therapeutic and health services. The goal of this research is to answer the basic question of, what relationship is there between the human development index (HDI) of the regions and the efficiency level of hospitals working in those specified regions. The data envelopment analysis (DEA) method is used to measure the efficiency level of 65 hospitals owned by the social security organization (SSO) of Iran, including small hospitals (working with lower than one hundred active beds) and large hospitals (working with over one hundred active beds) during the period of 2007 to 2009. Further, the relationship between human development index and technical efficiency level of hospitals in the provinces has been analyzed. Results show that the average technical efficiency of small and large hospitals in low and medium HDI provinces (0/912 and 0/937) are more than the average technical efficiency of hospitals in higher HDI provinces (0/870 and 0/887).Therefore it is recommended that social security organization should preferably spread its hospital services by more concentration on provinces with lower HDI and higher density of population living under the coverage of organization’s provident funds. This will eventually puts its positive effects on per capita income of people, as well as more equitable distribution of income. Keywords: Hospital, human development index, efficiency and data envelopment analysis.