Abstract:

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) allows researchers and policymakers to determine best practices, compare performance, and identify areas for improvement in healthcare systems. The aim of this study is to determine the healthcare service performance efficiency of countries in four different income groups during the COVID-19 pandemic and make comparisons among these countries. In the scope of the study, no sampling was conducted, and efforts were made to access the data of countries. The data were obtained from the World Bank database. The 88 countries with complete data were categorized into four different income groups: low-income, lower-middle-income, upper-middle-income, and high-income. The year 2019 was used as the pre-COVID-19 period, while the year 2020 was used to measure the healthcare system performance of countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data were analyzed using VZA. As a result of the analysis, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a decrease in efficiency scores was observed in 7% of low-income countries (n=1), 12% of lower-middle-income countries (n=2), 38% of upper-middle-income countries (n=9), and 61% of high-income countries (n=20) based on their healthcare system performance. The highest decrease compared to the pre-COVID-19 period was observed in high-income and upper-middle-income countries. Even if countries had good healthcare system indicators during the COVID-19 pandemic, factors such as a large urban population, international travel, and challenges in implementing preventive measures are likely to have a greater impact on upper-middle-income and high-income countries

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