The efficiency of public procurement in the health sector – the platform on sustainable public finances

Abstract

At present, public procurement processes and their efficiency represent one of the key determinants of public finance system. Many countries of the European Union work intensively on reforming public procurement processes. The main aim of public procurement is to create an open competition in order to achieve the most efficient use of public funds. The Slovak hospitals, that have been inefficiently managed in the long run, are the weakest segment of the healthcare system. Also, the public hospitals continue to generate substantial losses even if many reforms had been implemented to increase cost efficiency. However, medical debt consolidation did not help the hospitals to set optimal functioning of the economic processes in order to improve their management permanently. The primary aim of the study is to examine an impact of selected determinants on an efficiency of public procurement processes in the healthcare system of the Slovak Republic during the 2014 – 2017. The data were obtained from the registers of the Public Procurement Office of the Slovak Republic. The multinomial logistic regression was used to determine the following findings: in case of zero, or positive savings, the number of offers, year of public procurement, type of public procurement procedure, NUTS level of procurement and participation of a subcontractor in procurement process are significant categorical variables. The study results enable a creation of multi-dimensional analyses and support models in order to make effective public procurement processes in the healthcare system. Similarly, these results enable to create comparative benchmarking analyses, and may lead to a creation of new agencies and institutions.