The impact of the economic crisis on the quality of health services

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

purpose of this project is to analyze the impact of the crisis on the quality of health care provided, as well as the extent in which the levels of quality were affected by the decrease in resources and increase in patients’ health problems. By using patient level data from the DRG database, the effects will be estimated taking into account the demand and supply side factors, individual and illness’ episode characteristics. Results convey a deterioration of the quality indicators from 2009 to 2010. However, unemployment, a variable characterizing the crisis due to its magnitude, showed to have no significance statistically. Finally, the results also suggest that, the effects of the crisis created pressure in the financial situation of the hospitals, which led to inferior quality health services.