Rationing in health systems: A critical review

Authors

  • Mehdi Jafari –Sirizi School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract:

Background: It is difficult to provide health care services to all those in need of such services due to limited resources and unlimited demands. Thus, priority setting and rationing have to be applied. This study aimed at critically examining the concept of rationing in health sector and identifying its purposes, influencing factors, mechanisms, and outcomes.     Methods: The critical interpretive synthesis methodology was used in this study. PubMed, Cochrane, and Proquest databases were searched using the related key words to find related documents published between 1970 and 2015. In total, 161 published reports were reviewed and included in the study. Thematic content analysis was applied for data analysis.    Results: Health services rationing means restricting the access of some people to useful or potentially useful health services due to budgetary limitation. The inherent features of the health market and health services, limited resources, and unlimited needs necessitate health services rationing. Rationing can be applied in 4 levels: health care policy- makers, health care managers, health care providers, and patients. Health care rationing can be accomplished through fixed budget, benefit package, payment mechanisms, queuing, copayments, and deductibles.    Conclusion: This paper enriched our understanding of health services rationing and its mechanisms at various levels and contributed to the literature by broadly conceptualizing health services rationing.  

Upgrade to premium to download articles

Sign up to access the full text

Already have an account?login

similar resources

Rationing in health systems: A critical review

Background: It is difficult to provide health care services to all those in need of such services due to limited resources and unlimited demands. Thus, priority setting and rationing have to be applied. This study aimed at critically examining the concept of rationing in health sector and identifying its purposes, influencing factors, mechanisms, and outcomes. Methods: The critical interpretive...

full text

Rationing critical care beds: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVE Rationing critical care beds occurs daily in the hospital setting. The objective of this systematic review was to examine the impact of rationing intensive care unit beds on the process and outcomes of care. DATA SOURCE We searched MEDLINE (1966-2003), CINAHL (1982-2003), Ovid Healthstar (1975-2003), EMBASE (1980-2003), Scisearch (1980-2003), the Cochrane Library, PUBMED related art...

full text

Cholera, Migration, and Global Health – A Critical Review

Cholera is an acute diarrheal infection caused by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The causative agent of this disease was originally described by Filippo Pacini in 1854, and afterwards further analyzed by Robert Koch in 1884. It is estimated that each year there are 1.3 million to 4 million cases of cholera, and 21 000 to 143 000 deaths worldwide ...

full text

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Health Interventions: A Critical Review

Background and Aim: Economic evaluation of health interventions by comparing the relevant costs and benefits will result in optimum allocation of resources and increasing the effectiveness of the health system and, through improving equity and increasing accessibility to health services, will lead to increased effectiveness of the health system. The purpose of this study was to critically evalu...

full text

My Resources

Save resource for easier access later

Save to my library Already added to my library

{@ msg_add @}


Journal title

volume 31  issue 1

pages  271- 277

publication date 2017-01

By following a journal you will be notified via email when a new issue of this journal is published.

Keywords

Hosted on Doprax cloud platform doprax.com

copyright © 2015-2023