[Indices of public health services and resource allocation from the Health Ministry of Chile].
BACKGROUND
Chile has a National Health Services System, formed by 29 Health Services. An efficient resource distribution among this services is crucial for an efficient health care delivery.


OBJECTIVE
To obtain indices from the Chilean Public Health Services, that could improve allocation of resources.


METHODS
Information from the Chilean Public Health Services, corresponding to activities during 2001 budgetary period, was collected. This is the latest complete and official information for the totality of Health Services in the country. Seventeen variables generated or monitored by the Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas (INE), the Ministerio de Salud (MINSAL), the Ministerio de Hacienda, the Ministerio de Planificación y Cooperación (MIDEPLAN) and the Fondo Nacional de Salud (FONASA) were studied. The Main Components Analysis (ACP) was used, obtained from the R correlation matrix.


RESULTS
The first two main components were selected, with an accumulated percentage of explained variability of 63.05%. The first component is related to the population assigned to each Health Service. This corresponds to the number of people needed to treat in the hospitals of these Services and their answer to this demand, justified by the expenses in which each Health Service incurs. There is an inverse relation of the first component with health indicators, measured by burden of disease and death. The second main component would represent the social and economic characteristics of the population, poor and very poor populations and public health insurance beneficiaries, to take care of in each Health Service.


CONCLUSIONS
Health indicators in each Health Service are not considered a priority for resource distribution among Health Services in the country. The transference is done considering the indices contained in the two main components defined.
Salinas
Hugo
H
Departamento de Obstetricia y Ginecología, Hospital Clínico de la Universidad de Chile. hsalinas@ns.hospital.uchile.cl
Erazo
Marcia
M
Reyes
Alvaro
A
Carmona
Sergio
S
Veloz
Patricio
P
Bocaz
Francisca
F
Silva
Paulina
P
Carvajal
Rodrigo
R
D002677:Chile; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015276:Health Care Rationing / Q000191:economics*; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011635:Public Health Administration / Q000191:economics*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors