Technical efficiency of public district hospitals in Bangladesh: a data envelopment analysis.

Since the average technical efficiency of the DHs was 79%, there is little scope for overall improvements in these facilities by adjusting inputs. Therefore, we recommend to invest further in the DHs for improvement of services. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) should improve the efficiency in resource allocation by setting an input-mix formula for DHs considering health and socio-economic indicators (e.g., population density, poverty, bed occupancy ratio). The formula can be designed by learning from the input mix in the more efficient DHs. The MoHFW should conduct this kind of benchmarking study regularly to assess the efficiency level of health facilities which may contribute to reduce the wastage of resources and consequently to provide more affordable and accessible public hospital care.