Enhancing performance in health care: a theoretical perspective on agency and the role of information

Maria Goddard, Russell Mannion and Peter Smith

Health Economics, 2000, vol. 9, issue 2, 95-107

Abstract: This paper examines the role of information in securing control of health care systems. The discussion focuses on the impact of the proposed ‘Performance Framework’, which entails a significant increase in the importance attached to formal performance indicators in the management of the UK National Health Service. The paper starts with a discussion of the role of performance data in securing organizational control within health care systems and summarizes recent research into the behavioural consequences of seeking to control health care agents using such information. A theoretical principal/agent model is then used to illustrate the incentives that exist for dysfunctional behaviour within health care when only imperfect information systems are available. The theoretical results are then examined in the context of a qualitative empirical study, which elicited the perceptions of managers and health care professionals connected with eight NHS hospitals. The study confirmed the existence and importance of serious dysfunctional consequences arising from the use of information as a means of control, and concludes that the Performance Framework will be successful only if it is used in careful conjunction with other means of control. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Date: 2000
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1050(200003)9:23.0.CO;2-A

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:wly:hlthec:v:9:y:2000:i:2:p:95-107

Access Statistics for this article

Health Economics is currently edited by Alan Maynard, John Hutton and Andrew Jones

More articles in Health Economics from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().