104 HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS EFFICIENCY IN THE VISEGRÁD GROUP MÁRIA GRAUSOVÁ Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Faculty of Economics, Department of Quantitative Methods and Information Systems, Tajovského 10, 975 90 Banská Bystrica email: maria.grausova@umb.sk MIROSLAV HUŽVÁR Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Faculty of Economics, Department of Quantitative Methods and Information Systems, Tajovského 10, 975 90 Banská Bystrica email: miroslav.huzvar@umb.sk JANA ŠTRANGFELDOVÁ Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Faculty of Economics, Department of Public Economics and Regional Development, Tajovského 10, 975 90 Banská Bystrica email: jana.strangfeldova@umb.sk Abstract We examine healthcare systems efficiency in four countries of the Visegrád group during the period 2004-2010. For this purpose, we apply the Data Envelopment Analysis on data of 18 European countries. The number of practising physicians per 100 000 inhabitants, the number of hospital beds per 100 000 inhabitants and the share of health expenditures to GDP are considered as inputs, and infant mortality and life expectancy for males at birth are considered as outputs. We calculate Super-SBM efficiency scores to rank countries and to suggest improvements for the Visegrád group. To measure efficiency changes over specified time period, Malmquist productivity indexes are computed from DEA scores. Standard decomposition of Malmquist index into frontier shift and catching up effect gives a deeper insight into the issue. Key words: Healthcare system efficiency, DEA, Super-SBM, Malmquist productivity index, Visegrád group. DOI: 10.15611/amse.2014.17.11 1. Introduction The efficiency of healthcare system can be viewed from social, medical and economic points. Social efficiency pursues the fundamental objective of the development of people as individuals and the development of society as a whole. We evaluate the medical efficiency by improving the health status of the patient after consumption of adequate health services, but it is not possible to quantify this efficiency with economic indicators. Economic efficiency can be evaluated through the development of labor productivity, gross domestic product, or reproduction of human potential through the improvement of the population health. Peacock, Chan, Mangolini, Johansen (2001) distinguish allocative and technical efficiency in relation to the better use of healthcare resources. Technical efficiency focuses on minimizing inputs to achieve an expected performance. Allocative efficiency is aimed at improving the performance indicators in health care.