Resource allocation of city and county under government supervision: An effectiveness analysis of the healthcare system in Taiwan

This paper aims to explore the efficiency of health care resource allocation of 23 cities and counties in Taiwan. The data envelopment analysis (DEA) method was used to compare the relative technical efficiency between counties and cities during the period from 2000 to 2009. In addition, the multidimensional scaling (MDS) method was applied to examine the allocation of healthcare resources in the Taiwan health system. The DEA results showed that some counties and cities had a long history of low relative technical efficiency, and the MDS results indicated that healthcare resource allocation was palpably unbalanced and of low efficiency. The results of this study will provide policy-makers with some insight into the efficiency of current healthcare resource allocation, and prioritize improvements for the counties and cities that show long-term low efficiency. The relative distance between the coordinates produced from the MDS analysis can serve as a reference for planning or adjusting the priority of the improvements.