Measuring Absolute Productivity Using Integrated Models of EATWIOS and CRITIC: A Study on Healthcare Services in Türkiye

Global health expenditures, which have increased over the past 20 years, and especially reimbursement of health expenditures in developed and developing countries, mainly by government budgets, have further increased the importance of effective and efficient use of resources used in funding these expenditures. In this study, absolute productivity of healthcare services provided between 2009 and 2020 in Türkiye was measured using EATWIOS, which has not been used in the field of health so far, as integrated with CRITIC. Findings showed that productivity of healthcare services in Türkiye in the period of 2009–2022 was close to the productivity threshold but still low. This was particularly attributed to the low rates of satisfaction from services provided by university and private sector hospitals and the excessiveness of both current and investment expenditures for health. Findings of sensitivity analysis, on the other hand, showed that rather than input weights, satisficing levels determined for outcomes were effective on the productivity scores. Thus, it was concluded that in order to raise the productivity of healthcare services in Türkiye, it would be beneficial to increase the rates of satisfaction from the healthcare services provided by university and private sector hospitals and to reduce health expenditures made by state hospitals.