OBJECTIVES: This study aims to estimate technical efficiency scores of District Headquarter (DHQs) hospitals in the context of maternal, newborn and child health programs. Furthermore, to examine the relationship between the efficiency of above mentioned healthcare providers and the patients’ perceptions about the quality of provided services

METHODS: Data from Health Facility Assessment (HFA) survey is used for efficiency measurement of DHQHs. The data on patient’s perceptions’ and other control variables are taken from Client Exit Interviews part of HFA survey. Three techniques are used to form satisfaction index such as equal weights, Principal Component Analysis and Polychoric Principal Component Analysis for robustness. Two stage residual inclusion, Ordered Logistic Regression and Least square dummy variable techniques are used to investigate the relation between technical efficiency of a hospital and patients satisfaction level.

RESULTS: The average efficiency score for Pakistan’s DHQH is 0.52 which was found to be quite low and none of the hospitals are on the frontier, implying that not a single hospital is fully efficient. Moreover, the relationship between technical efficiency and patients’ perceptions was found to be negative and significant which indicates with the increase in hospital efficiency, the satisfaction level of the patients tends to decrease. According to the findings of dis-aggregated analysis, the patients’ level of satisfaction which is associated with the healthcare provider attitude and communication is more affected by the technical efficiency.

CONCLUSIONS: Patient satisfaction level is more sensitive to physician’s (healthcare provider) attitude and communication. This can be held true, as from a patient’s perspective, longer the consultation time, better and more accurate diagnosis is achieved. The same can be said about physician’s attitude. A comforting and confident physician is likely to achieve better patient satisfaction.