Learning in Health Care: Evidence of Learning about Clinician Quality in Tanzania

Learning is an important force for progress in developing countries and may represent a significant underutilized resource in health care. Using data from rural Tanzania, we show that households value quality at health facilities and that the value they place on at least two aspects of quality is increasing with the tenure of the clinician. The fact that patients increasingly prefer good clinicians and avoid bad clinicians as time passes and that the value they place on quality plateaus after about 5 years is strong evidence for learning. The fact that they increasingly choose better clinicians suggests that learning improves outcomes.