Performance of Council Designated Hospitals (Cdhs) in Tanzania: Does Experience Matter?

Abstract

This study attempts to shed light on the performance of CDHs based on experience. It examined efficiency and total factor productivity of 17 CDHs from 2009 to 2013. The study employs non-parametric approaches to estimate efficiency and productivity. Result records that new CDHs were performing relatively better than experienced CDHs and the productivity change was largely derived by growth or regress in technical change. Using Mann-Whitney-U test we rejected the null hypothesis that the distribution of technical efficiency was equal across new and experienced CDHs since P -value was less than 5%. The paper suggests that policy makers, government, and hospitals owners should invest in new technology as main deriving factor of productivity in CDHs. Conclusively, this paper holds that experience of operating as CDHs does not matters when it comes to improvement of hospitals’ efficiency. Interestingly, experience of operating as CDHs does not necessarily imply superiority in the performance.