BACKGROUND Cost studies are paramount for demonstrating how resources have been spent and identifying opportunities for more efficient use of resources. The main objective of this study was to assess the actual dimension and distribution of the costs of providing antenatal care (ANC) and childbirth services in selected rural primary health care facilities in Tanzania. In addition, the study ana...

BACKGROUND There is limited evidence on the course of health service costs before and after psychiatric inpatient treatment, which might also be affected by source of cost data. Thus, this study examines: i) differences in health care costs before and after psychiatric inpatient treatment, ii) whether these differences vary by source of cost-data (self-report vs. administrative), and iii) predi...

The incentives in the Medicare and Medicaid physician payment systems and their effects on six interrelated aspects of health care costs and beneficiary access to care were analyzed. Research results and data presented indicate that Medicare and Medicaid physician payment incentives are inconsistent with current public policy goals of (1) containing inflation in fees and expenditures, (2) encou...

BACKGROUND Recent analyses show that donor funding for child health is increasing, but little information is available on actual costs to deliver child health care services. Understanding how unit costs scale with service volume in Malawi can help planners allocate budgets as health services expand. METHODS Data on facility level inputs and outputs were collected at 24 health centres in four ...

To cite: Wilson PM, Boaden R, Harvey G. BMJ Qual Saf 2016;25:572–576. THE DRIVE FOR INNOVATION Across health systems there is a drive to roll out innovative models of care that will deliver better value for money and improve the quality of care. Innovation in service delivery has been defined as ‘a novel set of behaviours, routines, and ways of working that are discontinuous from previous pract...

As health care costs increase, there is a need for healthcare service providers to look for ways to contain costs and to achieve a higher efficiency at their operating facilities without sacrificing quality. This paper studies a case in employing business process reengineering techniques on one aspect of a health care service – surgical work. The system is simulated focusing on the processes th...

OBJECTIVES To demonstrate the costs, outcomes and economic impact of early intervention in psychosis (EIP) services. DESIGN Longitudinal retrospective observational study of service usage and outcome data from mental health and acute care services for all those with a diagnosis of psychosis in contact with mental health services over a 3-year period (April 2010-March 2013). SETTING Thames V...

in this paper, the staff assignment problem considering cross-training of caregivers in health care systems is addressed to determine which staff should be cross-trained for each service and how they should be assigned to services. a bi-objective non-linear mathematical programming model is presented where the first objective function aims to minimize workload balancing, cross-training as well ...