Assessment Of The Performance Of Government Hospitals Providing Free Health Services Using The Balanced Scorecard Model: A Case Of Kamuzu Central Hospital In Malawi

Abstract

Many developing economies have adopted management systems developed for advanced economies in order to enhance accountability, transparency, and service quality delivery. For instance, though the public-sectors of many countries with developing economies are reported to have implemented the balanced scorecard (BSC) concept, very limited literature has reported its implementation. In Malawi, the quality of health services rendered to the population, even though the Ministry of Health (MOH) policy tries to advocate for improved quality of services to be provided at health facilities. Some of the direct results of the public uproar being unavailability of drugs, few medical personnel relative to patient demand, politicization of hospitals’ operations. Consequently, there is congestion at the hospital. With this referral hospital’s questionable performance, stakeholders have been requesting the government to assess how the hospital is fairing on the provision of free health services. The aim of this research study was undertaken to assess the performance of one of the government hospitals that provide free health services, Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe, using Balance Scorecard Model. In this research study the mixed methodology has been used, and questionnaires contained close ended as well as the open-ended questions. The performance of the Kamuzu Central Hospital has been measured using the Balanced Scorecard model. The study has revealed that the financial performance of the hospital is poor. However, the performance of the hospital had been rated as average on the basis of the output performance measures. The study has also established that there was a weak relationship between the financial and customer factors to the performance measures, there was a strong relationship between internal processes and innovation and learning on one hand and performance measures on the other. It is recommended that Kamuzu Central Hospital should introduce fund raising system that can be used to fund internal processes and innovation and learning processes of the hospital. It is also recommended that Kamuzu Central Hospital must design specialized trainings for its staff.