INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study was to investigate the costs and health status outcomes of intensive care unit (ICU) admission in patients who present after sudden cardiac arrest with in-hospital or out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation. METHODS Five-year survival, health-related quality of life (Medical Outcome Survey Short Form-36 questionnaire, SF-36), ICU costs, hospital co...

This study analyzed the efficiency of cholera treatment in three hospitals representative of the Ecuadorian public health system in order to provide hospital directors and administrators and health service policy-makers with information to plan responses to future epidemics and to reduce the costs of cholera treatment in general. For the study, total and excess cholera treatment costs were calc...

INTRODUCTION Hospital based delivery has been an expensive experience for poor households because of hidden costs which are usually unaccounted in hospital costs. The main aim of this study was to estimate the hidden costs of hospital based delivery and determine the factors associated with the hidden costs. METHODS A hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted among 384 post-partum mo...

The Australian political arena echoes with calls for the privatisation of health care institutions, the contracting-out of health care services and the introduction of various marketing strategies into hospital management. These calls are justified by asserting that the market, rather than the public sector, can provide better services, greater productivity and increased efficiency. The Nationa...

Background Reduction of inappropriate use of health services can decrease health care costs without harming the quality of services. This study aimed to investigate inappropriate admission and hospitalization at Afzalipour Hospital of Kerman, Iran. Methods Inappropriate admission and hospitalization were assessed via a cross-sectional study on 400 patients in Kerman Afzalipour Hospital, Kerma...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Malnutrition is a major contributor to morbidity and mortality from pediatric liver disease. We investigated the prevalence of both malnutrition and high nutritional risk in hospitalized children with liver disease as well as the rate of in-hospital nutritional support. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN A total of 2,874 hospitalized children and adolescents with liver disease...

From the US to China, South Africa to India, governments and citizens are engaged in an active debate about how best to protect people from catastrophic health care costs while ensuring access to health care of adequate quality. While it is widely known that in the US there are 50 million uninsured, it is perhaps less well known that across the world 100 million people are pushed into poverty e...

Controlling healthcare costs is a multifaceted problem for governments all over the world, as they have the difficult task of ensuring that patients receive high quality care, and that this is delivered as efficiently as possible. Through the use of quantitative analysis, an attempt is made to determine the areas of activity of 32 Greek Public Obstetrical and Gynaecological Units which present ...

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) devices are much more expensive in Japan than in the United States, but their prices were reduced in April 2002. This study evaluated the impact of that change in the price of PCI devices on medical expenses. In-hospital costs of 22 consecutive patients who underwent elective single-vessel PCI without a debulking procedure before April 2002 were collecte...

BACKGROUND While delirium has been increasingly recognized as a serious and potentially preventable condition, its long-term implications are not well understood. This study determined the total 1-year health care costs associated with delirium. METHODS Hospitalized patients aged 70 years and older who participated in a previous controlled clinical trial of a delirium prevention intervention ...