TOOLS AND METHODOLOGIES TO ASSESS THE EFFICIENCY OF HEALTH CARE SERVICES IN EUROPE
An EU approach to health system performance assessment: Building trust and learning from each other
Inefficiency in a health care system can arise for two distinct, yet related reasons. Inefficiency materialises 1) when the maximum possible improvement in outcome is not obtained from a fixed set of inputs (or, in other words, when the same – or even greater – outcome could be produced consuming less resources), and 2) when health resources are spent on a mix of services that fails to maximise societal health gains in aggregate. As explained in more detail below, these two types are conventionally referred to in the health economics literature as, respectively, technical and allocative efficiency.
