Health-Care Networks and the Impact of Maternal Health Care Projects – the Cases of Peru and Bolivia

Abstract

This paper shows that the evaluation of health projects can be inaccurate when it only considers the direct health-care services provided by health facilities, and that the effects on the entire healthcare network must be considered. In Peru's case, we found that an important effect of a new health facility is the improved service quality in the neighbouring facilities. In Bolivia's case, we found that an improvement of maternal health care service in one hospital may just reduce the demand for medical services in other primary health facilities without significantly affecting the overall performance of the health-care network.