Emissions Abatement: Assessing the Efficacy of a Results-Based Financing Project Targeted at the Pediatric Wards of Two Ugandan Hospitals

In this paper, we rely on data from a randomly extracted sample of 1148 clinical records to assess the efficacy of a Results-Based Financing (RBF) project targeted at the paediatric wards of two Private-Not-For-Profit Hospitals located in Northern Uganda. The evidence we provide suggests that the program improved both clinical and nursing procedures. It also indicates the critical importance of the timing of hospitalization. Children admitted within 7 or 14 days prior to the periodic assessment of performance standards (commonly referred to as inspection day) are approximately five times more likely to be part of the group benefiting from the highest standard of clinical procedures. Similar results are observed when considering all hospitalizations that occurred 7 or 14 days after the inspections. These effects are due to the enhanced appropriateness of treatments administered rather than the appropriateness of diagnoses, and diminish as hospitalizations further from the time of the periodic assessment are considered, raising doubts about the persistence of the consequences induced by RBF schemes.