EFICIENCIA EN EL USO DE LOS MAMÓGRAFOS PÚBLICOS EN UNA REGIÓN DE LA PROVINCIA DE BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA

MOSCOSO NEBEL; GERI MILVA; ARNAUDO MARÍA FLORENCIA; LAGO FERNANDO

REVISTA CUBANA DE SALUD PúBLICA

Centro Nacional de Información de Ciencias Médicas

Lugar: La Habana; Año: 2018 vol. 44 p. 123 - 140

0864-3466

Objectives: the purpose of this paper is to assess whether the current supply of public mammography machines available in the Region Sanitaria I (RSI) of the province of Buenos Aires (Argentina) can meet the potential demand of mammographic screenings from women without health coverage. More precisely, we analyze if an increase in the effective demand of mammograms requires the addition of new mammography machines or just making an efficient use of the available equipment.Methods: The potential demand of mammograms is estimated using two alternative clinical protocols. We use a DEA model to evaluate the relative efficiency of public sector mammography units. We estimate a input-oriented basic model. First we assume the existence of constant returns to scale. Latter we consider the existence of variables returns. In each model, efficiency coefficients and the slacks of input and output variables are calculated. Results: Depending on the protocol used in the estimates, the potential annual demand of mammograms in the RSI vary between 15,097 and 29,319 studies. Given the number of screenings actually performed, in no case the potential demand of mammograms is completely met. We find that only one mammography unit (out of eight) is fully efficient. Conclusions: Raising the efficiency of mammography units would allow an increase in the number of mammograms performed with the available resources, and therefore the percentage of coverage of the potential demand.