Development of a Classification System for Patients Referred to a Rehabilitation Program for Visual Impairment: a Method for Analysis and Budgetary Control

Program evaluation makes assessments from various perspectives. In health care areas, evaluation generally focuses on the relationship between the care process and the clinical results. Our study is of particular interest because it adds a cost dimension to that relationship, thus introducing a method for evaluating visual impairment rehabilitation programs that integrates full operating costs. Starting from the functional level of patients on admission to a clinical program, an experimental approach was used to divide them into five homogeneous groups according to their consumption of financial resources during the care process. This method could be used in measuring and evaluating the financial performance of all rehabilitation programs and help improve budgetary control. With the added dimension of costs per client profile, it could provide a framework for other areas requiring program evaluations.