The impact of hospital management reforms on absenteeism in Costa Rica

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11490705
AutoresAriadna Garcia-Prado (0000-0003-0052-7198, Universidad Pública de Navarra (UPNA), autor de correspondencia), Mukesh Chawla (0000-0001-9358-8015)
Año2006
Volumen21
Número2
Páginas91-100
Fecha de publicación2006-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaHealth Policy and Planning (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0268-1080 • E-ISSN: 1460-2237
EditorialOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/heapol/czj015
PMID16415337
OpenAlexW2168772695
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas28

The reduction of high levels of absenteeism among health care workers was one the objectives of the reforms undertaken to improve public hospital performance during the 1990s in Costa Rica. This paper attempts to assess the impact of changes in reimbursement methods and organizational reform on absence rates among health care personnel in Costa Rican public hospitals for the period 1995-2001. Our results show the reforms to have had a negative impact on absenteeism, which increased throughout the considered period. Results further indicate that the policy of not substituting absentee workers, which was introduced through the reforms, did not work as expected in a permissive environment in which peer pressure mechanisms were lacking. In addition, the explicit incentives for workers included in the reforms were retained and used at facility level. There is a pressing need in the future for control and disciplinary mechanisms for health care personnel and for the introduction of absence rates as an explicit goal to be monitored and evaluated.

Absenteeism · Business · Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental health · Health care · Incentive · Public health · Reimbursement · Work (physics) · Healthcare Policy and Management · Healthcare Systems and Reforms · Insurance and Financial Risk Management · Medicine · Nursing