A Comparative Performance Analysis of Türkiye's Health System within OECD Countries

Abstract

A country's health system stands as one of its most critical infrastructures, significantly influencing the well-being of its citizens. In line with the World Health Organization's (WHO) widely accepted definition, a country's health system involves all organizations, people, and actions whose primary purpose is to promote, restore, or maintain health (World Health Organization., 2007). As indicated in this definition, a health system carries characteristics of complex systems posing significant challenges in its management and maintenance. The complex nature of the health system also challenges the country's policymakers to improve the outcomes of the health system. Examining specific key performance indicators of the health system can assist policymakers in gaining deeper insights into its internal capacities and identifying areas for improvement. This paper provides a comparative performance analysis of Türkiye’s health system compared to other Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries using selected key performance indicators of the health system's capacity and resources. The methodology involves a comprehensive review of existing literature, data collection and analysis, and performance evaluation using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique. In this performance analysis, health systems capacity-related indicators, such as health expenditure, number of doctors, number of nurses, and number of hospital beds, are used as input variables, and life expectancy at birth and citizens’ satisfaction with the healthcare system are output variables. The analysis intends to identify best practices and potential areas for improvement within Türkiye’s health system by benchmarking insights from other OECD countries.