Which doctor? Combining vignettes and item response to measure doctor quality

Jishnu Das and Jeffrey Hammer

No 3301, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: The authors develop a method in which vignettes-a battery of questions for hypothetical cases-are evaluated with item response theory to create a metric for doctor quality. The method allows a simultaneous estimation of quality and validation of the test instrument that can be used for further refinements. The authors apply the method to a sample of medical practitioners in Delhi, India. The method gives plausible results, rationalizes different perceptions of quality in the public and private sectors, and pinpoints several serious problems with health care delivery in urban India. The findings confirm, for instance, that the quality of private providers located in poorer areas of the city is significantly lower than those in richer neighborhoods. Surprisingly, similar results hold for providers in the public sector, with important implications for inequities in the availability of health care.

Keywords: Health Monitoring&Evaluation; Disease Control&Prevention; Health Systems Development&Reform; Public Health Promotion; Educational Sciences; Health Monitoring&Evaluation; Educational Sciences; Information and Records Management; Health Systems Development&Reform; Health Economics&Finance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004-05-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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