Health care system performance of 27 OECD countries

ABSTRACT

The article is based on a multidimensional conception of healthcare system performance. Our objectives are to assess the performance of the healthcare systems of 27 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and to discern the countries' profiles according to the homogeneity of their healthcare systems' levels of performance. The analyses were carried out on data collected from the 27 high-income OECD countries, primarily using the OECD Health Data 2007 database, the World Health Organization 2008 statistics, OECD Health at a Glance and OECD Social Indicators. Each healthcare system's performance was assessed on the basis of the volume of available resources, services produced and health outcomes achieved and efficiency, effectiveness and productivity, thus characterizing the investments made in proportion to the available resources and services produced. Overall performance profiles were constructed taking into account simultaneously the level of all these components. Using multiple clusters analysis, we were able to group the countries into four profiles (satisfactory, promising, weak-polarized and limited) according to the homogeneity of their performance levels. This article offers a broad overview of the performance of these healthcare systems. The results will enable decision-makers to know the strengths and weaknesses of their own health care system and also to compare it with those of other countries. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.