PURPOSE
The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of community visiting health service units using DEA and to compare the results with those of traditional evaluation methods.
METHODS
Data were collected using 2008 annual reports of 10 districts in one city. Input variables were number of staff and operational budget per year and output variables were number of managed household per nurse, rate of controlled hypertension, and diabetes mellitus. EMS Window version 3.1 was used to measure efficiency score and bootstrapping Chi-square test was applied to identify differences between efficient and non-efficient unit by organizational factors.
RESULTS
The average efficiency score of 10 community visiting health services was about 66%. Only two of the units operated program efficiently. The career of the staff was one among other factors associated with efficiency. The evaluation results from the traditional method and DEA were totally different.
CONCLUSION
These results indicate that, evaluation methods have very important and significant effects on the evaluation results of community visiting health service units. The DEA method is recommend as an alterative method for evaluating community visiting health service.

Citations

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