search
for
 About Bioline  All Journals  Testimonials  Membership  News


The Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition
icddr,b
ISSN: 1606-0997
EISSN: 1606-0997
Vol. 28, No. 3, 2010, pp. 264-272
Bioline Code: hn10034
Full paper language: English
Document type: Research Article
Document available free of charge

The Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition, Vol. 28, No. 3, 2010, pp. 264-272

 en Calculation of costs of pregnancy- and puerperium-related care: Experience from a hospital in a low-income country
Sarowar, M. G.; Medin, E.; Gazi, R.; Koehlmoos, T. P.; Rehnberg, C.; Saifi, R.; Bhuiya, A. & Khan, J.

Abstract

Calculation of costs of different medical and surgical services has numerous uses, which include monitor-ing the performance of service-delivery, setting the efficiency target, benchmarking of services across all sectors, considering investment decisions, commissioning to meet health needs, and negotiating revised levels of funding. The role of private-sector healthcare facilities has been increasing rapidly over the last decade. Despite the overall improvement in the public and private healthcare sectors in Bangladesh, lack of price benchmarking leads to patients facing unexplained price discrimination when receiving healthcare services. The aim of the study was to calculate the hospital-care cost of disease-specific cases, specifically pregnancy- and puerperium-related cases, and to indentify the practical challenges of conducting costing studies in the hospital setting in Bangladesh. A combination of micro-costing and step-down cost alloca-tion was used for collecting information on the cost items and, ultimately, for calculating the unit cost for each diagnostic case. Data were collected from the hospital records of 162 patients having 11 different clinical diagnoses. Caesarean section due to maternal and foetal complications was the most expensive type of case whereas the length of stay due to complications was the major driver of cost. Some constraints in keeping hospital medical records and accounting practices were observed. Despite these constraints, the findings of the study indicate that it is feasible to carry out a large-scale study to further explore the costs of different hospital-care services.

Keywords
Cost calculation; Costs and cost analysis; Health expenditure; Healthcare cost; Hospital cost; Maternal health; Micro-costing; Bangladesh

 
© Copyright 2010 Journal of Health Population and Nutrition.
Alternative site location: http://www.jhpn.net

Home Faq Resources Email Bioline
© Bioline International, 1989 - 2024, Site last up-dated on 01-Sep-2022.
Site created and maintained by the Reference Center on Environmental Information, CRIA, Brazil
System hosted by the Google Cloud Platform, GCP, Brazil