The impact of policy on the intangible service efficiency of the primary health care institution- based on China’s health care reform policy in 2009

OBJECTIVES: Analyzing the impact of the China's health care reform policy in 2009 on the intangible service efficiency of PHCI and exploring the way to improve the service efficiency of PHCI. METHODS: The Malmquist productivity index based on the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used to measure the variation of TFP and its decomposition of PHCI before and after the implementation of the health care reform policy in 2009. Then, the Tobit model was applied to estimate the key factors affecting the improvement of the intangible service efficiency of PHCI. RESULTS: The number of health resources and the intangible service efficiency of PHCI have increased obviously since the implementation of the China's health care reform. The growth of intangible service efficiency of PHCI was mainly affected by the technical progress, but the management level and scale efficiency change have not yet played an important role. CONCLUSIONS: The growth of intangible service efficiency in China's PHCI still belongs to input growth rather than efficiency growth. In the future, the technical progress and improvement in the management level are the key measures to promote the intangible service efficiency of PHCI.