Key messages

• The inexorable growth in health expenditure has led to a widespread demand for efficiency improvements.
• There is no single metric or set of indicators that will give the complete picture of health system efficiency in a country.
• The real causes of any identified inefficiencies need to be carefully identified and analysed to inform good policy-making.
• More nuanced indicators require more standardized and detailed cost accounting data and linked datasets and registries.
• This policy brief gives a useful framework for understanding and interpreting the healthcare efficiency metrics that are widely used.

Contents

• Acknowledgements
• How do Policy Briefs bring the evidence together?
• Acronyms
• Executive summary
• Policy brief
  • Introduction
  • Findings
  • Discussion
  • Conclusions
• References
• Appendix 1. Using the analytic framework to interpret selected efficiency measures
• Joint Policy Briefs

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What is a Policy Brief?