The inexorable growth in health expenditure has led to a widespread demand for efficiency improvements.
There is no single metric or set of indicators that will give the complete picture of health system efficiency in a country.
The real causes of any identified inefficiencies need to be carefully identified and analysed to inform good policy-making.
More nuanced indicators require more standardized and detailed cost accounting data and linked datasets and registries.
This policy brief gives a useful framework for understanding and interpreting the healthcare efficiency metrics that are widely used.
© World Health Organization 2017 (acting as the host organization for, and secretariat of, the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies).