Publication: Which Doctor? Combining Vignettes and Item Response to Measure Doctor Quality
Date
2004-05
ISSN
Published
2004-05
Author(s)
Abstract
The authors develop a method in which
vignettes-a battery of questions for hypothetical cases-are
evaluated with item response theory to create a metric for
doctor quality. The method allows a simultaneous estimation
of quality and validation of the test instrument that can be
used for further refinements. The authors apply the method
to a sample of medical practitioners in Delhi, India. The
method gives plausible results, rationalizes different
perceptions of quality in the public and private sectors,
and pinpoints several serious problems with health care
delivery in urban India. The findings confirm, for instance,
that the quality of private providers located in poorer
areas of the city is significantly lower than those in
richer neighborhoods. Surprisingly, similar results hold for
providers in the public sector, with important implications
for inequities in the availability of health care.
Citation
“Das, Jishnu; Hammer, Jeffrey. 2004. Which Doctor? Combining Vignettes and Item Response to Measure Doctor Quality. Policy Research Working Paper;No.3301. © World Bank, Washington, D.C.. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14032 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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