Evaluation of performance at Palestinian public hospitals using Pabón Lasso model.

BACKGROUND Hospitals have a paramount role in provision of health care services, which in turn significantly impacts the performance of any health system, especially in developing countries. AIM This study aimed to evaluate the performance of the Ministry of Health general hospitals in Gaza according to their surgical and internal medicine departments during a 3-year period (2016, 2017 and 2018) using Pabon Lasso model. METHOD This descriptive study includes the overall public general hospitals in Gaza Strip (7). Data have been collected from the officially disseminated reports, mainly about average length of stay, bed occupancy rate, and bed turnover ratio in the surgical and internal medicine departments for the study period. Pabon Lasso charts have been drawn using MS Excel 2013. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION For surgical departments, about 42.8% were efficient (zone 3) during the 3 years, while, 42.8% were inefficient (zone 1). Only one hospital was relatively efficient (zone 4) in 2017 and 2018. Regarding internal medicine departments, 28.6%-42.8% of hospitals were efficient during the study period, 14.3%-42.8% were inefficient, and 28.6%-42.8% were relatively efficient (zone 2 and 4). It is recommended to count on such type of analysis in decision-making and identify obstacles for best utilization of the available resources. Inefficiency in hospitals serves as a good opportunity for resources mobilization or innovation in demand-creating interventions, thereby, regular evaluation of resources' distribution. Further research is required by applying frontier techniques of efficiency measurement.