In the fall of 2004, the United States faced a national shortage of influenza vaccine after a major vaccine manufacturer was unable to produce millions of doses of the vaccine due to potential contamination. Many public and private sector entities had far fewer doses of influenza vaccine to allocate than they had anticipated. In response, federal, state, and local public health officials, priva...

Despite some progress, the current state of India's healthcare outcome leaves much to be desired. It has glaring challenges around high out-of-pocket spending, inequality of services, and fragmented social and regulatory standards. Since 2001, medical insurance has gained ground amid the proliferation of private health insurance (PHI) entities. However, it still remains a minor contributor in t...

The spatial distribution of urban service facilities is largely constrained by the road network. In this study, network point pattern analysis and correlation analysis were used to analyze the relationship between road network and healthcare facility distribution. The weighted network kernel density estimation method proposed in this study identifies significant differences between the outside ...

BACKGROUND Private healthcare providers are important to tuberculosis (TB) management globally, although internationally there are reports of suboptimal management and disparities in treatment commencement in the private sector. We compared the management of TB patients receiving private versus public healthcare in Victoria, an industrialised setting with low tuberculosis (TB) incidence. METH...

The Canadian context in which home-based healthcare services are delivered is characterised by limited resources and escalating healthcare costs. As a result, a financing shift has occurred, whereby care recipients receive a mixture of publicly and privately financed home-based services. Although ensuring that care recipients receive efficient and equitable care is crucial, a limited understand...

Despite some progress, the current state of India's healthcare outcome leaves much to be desired. It has glaring challenges around high out-of-pocket spending, inequality of services, and fragmented social and regulatory standards. Since 2001, medical insurance has gained ground amid the proliferation of private health insurance (PHI) entities. However, it still remains a minor contributor in t...

A BMJ investigation shows that NHS hospital trusts in England are increasingly turning to income from private patients to generate additional funding, as cost pressures tighten restrictions on some services in the NHS. Just a week after NHS England warned that the NHSmight face a funding gap of £30bn (€35bn; $45bn) by 2020, the BMJ has shown that one in six hospitals have introduced new private...

BACKGROUND Waiting times for hospital appointments, treatment and/or surgery have become a major political and health service problem, leading to national maximum waiting times and policies to reduce waiting times. Quantitative studies have documented waiting times for various types of surgery and longer waiting times in public vs private hospitals. However, very little qualitative research has...

BACKGROUND To assess progress towards universal health coverage, countries like Cambodia require evidence on equity in the financing and distribution of healthcare benefits. This evidence must be based on a system-wide perspective that recognises the complex roles played by the public and private sectors in many contemporary healthcare systems. OBJECTIVE To undertake a system-wide assessment ...

Assessment of healthcare technology and economics can be used to assess the access to healthcare, its quality and efficacy as well as its cost and cost efficiency. This report addresses these issues for the provision of care for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. An international comparison of access to ESRD treatment modalities was made with reference to the healthcare provider structure...