The impact of hospital management reforms on absenteeism in Costa Rica

Bibliographic Data

ID11490705
AuthorsAriadna Garcia-Prado (0000-0003-0052-7198, Universidad Pública de Navarra (UPNA), corresponding author), Mukesh Chawla (0000-0001-9358-8015)
Year2006
Volume21
Issue2
Pages91-100
Publication date2006-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHealth Policy and Planning (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0268-1080 • E-ISSN: 1460-2237
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/heapol/czj015
PMID16415337
OpenAlexW2168772695
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited28

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