Assessment of health technical efficiency in the cities of the Rota dos Bandeirantes health region of the state of São Paulo, Brazil.

Although administrators unanimously agree that the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) is underfunded, it is also unanimous that there are problems in the efficiency of expenditures management. From this perspective, this study assessed the health technical efficiency in the seven cities of the Rota dos Bandeirantes health region of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, from 2009 to 2012, through the Health Technical Efficiency Index. This index includes structure and results indicators, mainly from the goals and indicators agreement system, and it is collected from the database of the SUS Informatics Department. It was identified that only one city reached high health technical efficiency, while the other cities presented low efficiency. It was concluded that cities with higher income available and higher per capita expenditures achieved the best health indicator results and, therefore, better health technical efficiency indexes. However, some cities, even though small in structure, obtained better results than neighboring cities, which shows structure management efficiency. Thus, the resource represented an essential condition for efficiency, however not sufficient.