Improving the Health Coverage of the Rural Poor: Does Contracting-Out Mobile Medical Teams Work?
研究危地马拉大规模外包流动医疗队项目对农村健康覆盖的影响，发现显著提高了儿童免疫率和产前护理选择，增加了医生和护士的作用，减少了传统助产士的使用。
Low population density in rural developing countries coupled with deficient infrastructure, weak state capacity and limited budgets makes increasing health care coverage difficult. Contracting-out mobile medical teams may be a helpful solution in this context. This article examines the impact of a large-scale programme of this type in Guatemala. We document large impacts on immunisation rates for children and prenatal care provider choices. The programme increased substantially the role of physician and nurses at the expense of traditional midwives. The results indicate that mobile medical teams substantially increased coverage of health care services in Guatemala, and could be effective in other developing countries.