Abstract
This study analyzes the efficiency of 261 public sector Rural Health Centers (RHC’s) in Pakistan through application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The public health care system in Pakistan is faced with a number of challenges involving inadequacy of funds and improper utilization of available resources. The current ranking of Pakistan in terms of health care, according to World Health Organization (WHO), is at 122 out of a total of 190 countries. While, a minimum amount of 44 USD per capita is required for essential health services; in Pakistan, only 37 USD per capita are allocated for this purpose (Ministry of Finance, 2016). These problems, in conjunction with lack of appropriate policies, have resulted in serious repercussions for the general public; such as high infant and maternal mortality rates, low life expectancy and inability of the public health sector to deal efficiently with general epidemics. Data for this study is collected from District Health Information System office of Director General Health Services (Punjab, Pakistan). The findings of the study reveal serious inefficiencies in the performance of selected RHCs. Based on the insights about efficient and inefficient RHCs, the study concludes that there is a pressing need for introducing policy reforms in the public health sector to ensure better facilities for the rapidly expanding population.