%0 Report
        %A Bancalari, Antonella
%A Bernal, Pedro
%A Celhay, Pablo
%A Martinez, Sebastian
%A Sánchez, Maria Deni
        %T An Ounce of Prevention for a Pound of Cure: Efficiency of Community-Based Healthcare
        %D 2023
        %8 2023 Jul
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 16350
        %U https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp16350
        %X We study the efficiency in health systems generated by community health teams, a common strategy in low- and middle-income countries for primary healthcare delivery. We exploit the rollout of a nation-wide expansion of coverage to this model in El Salvador. Using a panel dataset of municipalities spanning 2009-2018 from consultation and hospital records of almost 4 million episodes, we show that investing in community-based healthcare, which relied on less-specialized health workers, led to a more efficient allocation of care. Preventive care increased and curative care and hospitalizations from preventable conditions decreased, while coverage in curative care for previously unattended chronic diseases increased.
        %K community-based healthcare
%K efficiency
%K access