Human resources are the major input in health systems. Therefore, their equitable distribution remains critical in making progress towards the goal of sustainable development. The purpose of this study is to evaluate equity in the distribution of healthcare human resources across regions of Poland from 2010 to 2017. This research by applying specifically to Polish conditions will allow the existing gap in the literature to be closed. Data were derived from the Database of Statistics Poland, and the Lorenz Curve/Gini coefficient was engaged as well as the Theil index to measure the extent and drivers of inequality in the distribution of healthcare human resources in macro-regions. Population size along with crude death rates are employed as proxies for healthcare need/demand. This research has several major findings. Mainly, it was found, that the geographical distribution of all types of human resources is less equitable than is the case with population distribution. Relatively lower equity in the access to oncologists, family doctors, and cardiologists was found. There are some noticeable differences between macro-regions in the equity level of healthcare human resources distribution. This research provides various implications for policy and practice and will allow for improved planning and more efficient use of these resources.

[full article and abstract in English] The purpose of this research is to examine the factors that determine the dividend policy of non-financial firms listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) in Poland and that of the annually paid dividends. Up to now, many empirical studies related to dividend policy were carried out, showing the differentiation of factors affecting the dividend policy and their interaction. Thus, with this study, it would be possible to give a view on the dividend policy of corporations listed on the WSE for the period from 2008 to 2016. The study covers non-financial companies listed on the WSE in Poland. The Tobit regression is used to identify the impact of factors influencing the companies’ distribution of dividends. The variables that may explain a firm’s dividend decision and that were used in this study are selected based on the theory and available empirical researches and then also determined by data availability. These are profitability, investment opportunities, measures of size, leverage, and liquidity. As a result of this study, the factors that determine the dividend policy of companies were verified in the context of the companies listed on the WSE. Moreover, it indicates which of the existing theories on dividend policy could be applied to the capital markets of Poland. Thus, it provides new insights into the theory of dividend policy.

The purpose of this study was to measure the competition level of general hospitals in Poland. The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) was used to investigate the concentration level of the general hospital sector in Poland, which is treated in the literature as a proxy of competition. To understand how general hospitals' market has been structured and thus competitive, the data for general hospitals spanning all Poland for the period of 2005-2013 were collected. The concentration of hospitals was measured in each of the 16 provinces in Poland based on the aggregated data at the counties level. Data are collected from the public statistical system. The HHI indices support the assertion that in the period of analysis the entire general hospitals' sector in Poland has been on average moderately concentrated and thus, moderately competitive with the growing tendency to higher concentration and less competition. Moreover, the concentration of hospitals' services is diversified across the provinces and regions of Poland and it is quite uneven. The analysis also shows that changes in the health care market, which took place in the analysed period, especially statutory changes regarding hospitals in 2011, affected the level of concentration and thus competition. Including this introduction, this paper is organized into six sections. Section 2 outlines the Polish health care reforms especially those applying to hospitals. Section 3 and 4 presents the concept of empirical research, such as data and method. Section 5 provides results of empirical research and section 6 concludes.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the disparities in the distribution of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) centres in Poland and the impact of eventual inequities on access to the invasive treatment of acute myocardial infarctions (AMI). To examine the distribution of PCI centres against population size and geographic size in Poland, the Gini coefficient calculated based on the Lorenz Curve was engaged. In addition, the regression function was employed to estimate the impact of distribution of PCI centres on access to invasive procedures (coronarographies and primary percutaneous coronary intervention). Data were collected from the public statistical system and Polish National Health Fund database for the year 2018. The relation and the level of equity was measured based on the aggregated data at a district (voivodeship) level. The results of the Gini coefficient analysis show that the distribution of invasive cardiology units measured against population size is more equitable than when measured against geographic size. In addition, the regression analysis shows the moderate size of the positive correlation between number of PCI centres per 100,000 population and the number of all categories of the invasive treatment of AMI per 100,000 population, and the lack of similar correlation in case of the number of PCI centres expressed per 1000 km2, which could be evidence of an insufficiency of PCI centres in areas where the concentration of PCI centres per 100,000 population is lower. The main implication for policy makers that results from this research is the need for a correction of PCI centres distribution per 100,000 inhabitants to ensure better access to invasive procedures.

The purpose of this study is to identify inequities in the distribution of socioeconomic determinants of health within Poland and their impact on the health status of Poles, as measured by mortality rate. We hypothesised that (1) there are inequities in the socioeconomic characteristics within geographically defined population groups and (2) some socioeconomic determinants of health have a particularly strong impact on the health status of Poles. Poland is administratively divided into three levels: voivodeships, powiats and gminas. We used a dataset covering all 380 powiats in Poland for the year 2018. We employed a two-stage nested Theil index and Herfindahl–Hirschman Index. In order to identify which of these determinants has the strongest impact on health, we conducted a regression analysis. The study revealed some inequities in the distribution of socioeconomic determinants of health. The mortality rate can be partly understood from variations within voivodeships in the distribution of health determinants. Important national inequalities were found in the case of two determinants, which simultaneously proved their significant impact on Poles’ health in the regression analysis. Thus, type of employment and access to modern infrastructure should be of particular concern for public authorities.

Equitable access to cardiological rehabilitation services is one of the important elements in the effectiveness of the treatment of cardiovascular diseases as cardiological rehabilitation is an important part of circulatory system disease prevention and treatment. However, in many countries among others, Poland suffers from the underutilization of cardiac rehabilitation services. Cardiovascular diseases are the worldwide number one cause of mortality, morbidity, and disability and are responsible for the substantial increase in health care costs. Thus, the aim of the research was the analysis of geographical accessibility to cardiac rehabilitation services in Poland. Perkal’s method was employed in this research. The conducted research allowed to recognize the regional variation, but also made it possible to classify Polish voivodeships in terms of the level of availability achieved. This enables the identification of voivodeships that provide a good, or even very good, access to cardiology rehabilitation services and those characterized by low, or very low access. It was found that there was a slight regional variability in the access to cardiological rehabilitation services. However, the sufficient development of a rehabilitation infrastructure has been also recognized.

The aim of this research is to analyze the disparities in the distribution of information and communication technologies and skills across geographically determined population groups and to identify the source of the inequity. Literature showed that the nature of e-Health has the potential to resolve health inequalities. However, its successful implementation depends on such factors as the accessibility of required technologies to all people, the existence of technical infrastructure as well as people having the necessary information and communication skills. Employment of the Theil index allowed us to measure and decompose the national inequality into both: between and within macro-regions differences. Data was collected from Statistics Poland. The results showed the existence of inequity and its drivers. The novelty of this research results from application of the Theil index in the field of eHealth and identification of the barrier in access to e-Health, which can be a basis for improvement in government policy.

The purpose of this article is to present the result of productivity analysis of university hospitals in Poland. The hospital sector, and especially the tertiary hospital subsector, are a large consumer of scarce health care resources, and it is of particular relevance to use these scarce resources as effectively and efficiently as possible. This is why it is so important to measure the efficiency and productivity of a hospital to find out whether it is still possible to improve their performance. In this paper, an analysis of 40 tertiary hospitals (which are called university hospitals in Poland) for the period from 2000 to 2007 is presented. To measure hospital productivity, the Malmquist index was employed. The usage of the Malmquist index is based on the data envelopment analysis (DEA), a non-parametric method to estimate the frontier functions, and this is a reason why this method was also employed in this research. The data comprise the number of physicians and nurses employed in university hospitals, the number of beds and the total number of bed days. The results show that in general there has been a worsening of the productivity of these hospitals over this period, and it was caused by an inappropriate usage of inputs. The paper is organized as follows: a brief description of hospital systems in Poland and the concept of their efficiency and productivity are presented, and then the method and data are discussed. In the fourth section, the results are presented, followed by conclusions.