Exploring the use of DEA for formative evaluation in primary diabetes care: An application to compare English practices

C A F Amado () and R G Dyson
Additional contact information
C A F Amado: University of Algarve, Campus de Gambelas
R G Dyson: University of Warwick

Journal of the Operational Research Society, 2009, vol. 60, issue 11, 1469-1482

Abstract: Abstract Primary care is currently at the heart of the UK National Health Service policy. Primary care trusts have the crucial role of improving the efficiency and equity in primary care delivery. However, few studies have focused on performance assessment in primary care provision. In this paper, we examine the role of data envelopment analysis (DEA) in helping decision makers to understand and improve the performance of primary care practices. We discuss the results from a study of 14 practices in England in terms of their delivery of diabetes services. In order to take into account the multiple values that underlie public services provision, we have considered several different perspectives for evaluation. These were: technical, allocative and cost efficiency, clinical and patient-focused effectiveness, and equity. The approach adopted involved a deep engagement with the practices. The purpose was to understand the structures and processes supporting effective practice using DEA in a formative role rather than the more usual summative role with a large data set. This approach is in the tradition of the developmental engagement approach of operational research.

Keywords: data envelopment analysis; health service; equity; efficiency; effectiveness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/jors.2008.160 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:60:y:2009:i:11:d:10.1057_jors.2008.160

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... search/journal/41274

DOI: 10.1057/jors.2008.160

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Operational Research Society is currently edited by Tom Archibald and Jonathan Crook

More articles in Journal of the Operational Research Society from Palgrave Macmillan, The OR Society
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().