Ownership: The Case of Irish Nursing Homes, Public and Private

Abstract:

Demographic trends in Ireland suggest that the proportion of older people living in residential care is set to expand. Studies in other countries conclude that there is a trade-off between quality of care and profit and with the rapid expansion of the private sector in Ireland over the last 15 years, we ask: is public ownership associated with higher quality of care and is price negatively related to level of deficiency and staffing? Using data compiled by HIQA covering all 612 nursing homes registered since 2009 and taking the number of deficiencies found by inspectors as a proxy for quality we conclude that private sector operators prove themselves far more flexible in their ability to address deficiencies. Considering that the average weekly cost of care in the public nursing home is almost twice as expensive as the other sectors continued expansion of the private sector and contraction of the public sector would seem inevitable.

J.E.L. Classifications: I10, I11