جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه "cost reduction" در نشریات گروه "پزشکی"

Hospital strategies aimed at increasing quality of care and simultaneously reducing costs show potential to improve healthcare, but knowledge on real-world effectiveness is limited. In 2014, two Dutch hospitals introduced such quality-driven strategies. Our aim was to evaluate contexts, mechanisms, and outcomes of both strategies using multiple perspectives.

We conducted a mixed methods evaluation. Four streams of data were collected and analysed: (1) semistructured interviewing of 62 stakeholders, such as medical doctors, nurses, managers, general practitioners (GPs), and consultants; (2) financial statements of both organisations and other hospitals in the Netherlands (counterfactual); (3) national database of quality indicators, and patient-reported experiences; and (4) existing material on strategy development and effects.

Both strategies resulted in a relative decrease in volume of care within the hospital, while quality of care has not been affected negatively. One hospital failed to cut operating costs sufficiently, resulting in declining profit margins. We identified six main mechanisms that impacted these outcomes: (1) Quality-improvement projects spur change and commitment; (2) increased coordination between hospital and primary care leads to substitution of care; (3) insufficient use of data and support hinder quality improvement; (4) scaling down hospital facilities is required to convert volume reductions to cost savings; (5) shared savings through global budgets lead to shared efforts between payer and hospital; and (6) financial security for physicians facilitates shift towards quality-driven care.

This integrated analysis of mixed data sources demonstrated that the institution-wide nature of the strategies has induced a shift from a focus on production towards quality of care. Longer-term (financial) sustainability of hospital strategies aimed at decelerating production growth requires significant efforts in reducing fixed costs. This strategy poses financial risks for the hospital if operating costs are insufficiently reduced or if payer alignment is compromised. Keywords: Hospital Strategy, Quality Improvement, Cost Reduction, Implementation, The Netherlands Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s); Published by Kerman University of Medical Sciences. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

A lack of knowledge exists on real world hospital strategies that seek to improve quality, while reducing or containing costs. The aim of this study is to identify hospitals that have implemented such strategies and determine factors influencing the implementation.

We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library and EconLit for case studies on hospitalwide strategies aiming to increase quality and reduce costs. Additionally, grey literature databases, Google and selected websites were searched. We used inductive coding to identify factors relating to implementation of the strategies.

The literature search identified 4198 papers, of which our included 17 papers describe 19 case studies from five countries, mostly from the United States. To accomplish their goals, hospitals use different management strategies, such as continuous quality improvement (CQI), clinical pathways, Lean, Six Sigma and value-based healthcare (VBHC). Reported effects on both quality and costs are predominantly positive. Factors identified to be relevant for implementation were categorized in eleven themes: (1) strategy, (2) leadership, (3) engagement, (4) reorganization, (5) finances, (6) data and information technology (IT), (7) projects, (8) support, (9) skill development, (10) culture, and (11) communication. Recurring barriers for implementation are a lack of physician engagement, insufficient financial support, and poor data collection.

Hospital strategies that explicitly aim to provide high quality care at low costs may be a promising option to bend the cost curve while improving quality. We found a limited amount of studies, and varying contexts across case studies. This underlines the importance of integrated evaluation research. When implementing a quality enhancing, cost reducing strategy, we recommend considering eleven conditions for successful implementation that we were able to derive from the literature.

Health transformation planwas implemented in 2014 in Iran with the aim of reducing healthcare expenditures. Transformation plans always have a financial impact on healthcare expenditures because of potential to increase the utilization. Drug utilization review is one of the effective solutions to explore consumption and improve rational use. This study aimed to evaluate the medicine utilization after health transformation with implementation of an evidence-based protocol in a tertiary hospital.  

This is a before-after study which was conducted in a tertiary children’s hospital with 400 beds in Iran. At first, costly medications were identified by ABC analysis in drug and therapeutic committee meetings of the hospital. Increased use of these medications was measured after the implementation of the health transformation plan. Then, the pattern of prescription, its appropriateness and impact of protocol implementation on the health expenditures reduction and rational use was evaluated.  

Initial estimation of the usage showed that before protocol implementation, in six-month, albumin, pantoprazole, and Apotel® increased by 31.9%, 22.6%, and 21.9%, respectively following the health transformation plan. Medical records of 6,554 patients were evaluated for target medications. The frequency of inappropriate prescription reduced significantly from the first to the second phase for albumin (65.5%-35.8%, P=0.001), pantoprazole (58.9%-22%, p <0.001), and Apotel® (66%-17%, p <0.001), respectively. Health expenditures also reduced significantly for albumin (P=0.003), pantoprazole (P=0.001) and acetaminophen (p <0.001), respectively. 

 Conclusion:

  Timely implementation of medication prescription protocols can provide health benefits to patients and cost savings to the health service provider that could lead the health transformation plan to reach the aim of reduction in health expenditures with rational use.

This paper investigated the impact of hospitals´ horizontal integration in the Czech Republic on the cost behavior. The aim of the research was to examined the hospitals costs in specific environment of region hospitals at NUTS 3 level (Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics) – Administrative Regions.

The survey was conducted in the period from April to August 2016 in the Czech Republic. The research was divided into two parts. The first part was based on data obtained from the Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic. We used Statgraphics Centurion XVII for the descriptive statistics and data visualization. Second part of the results was obtained through a survey research focused on managers of the horizontal integrated hospitals and their experiences with the cost behavior.

The results from statistical survey showed that up to 80 percent of the observed region hospitals at NUTS 3 level, the cost of treatment for a patient per day has decreased after integration into an association. Based on primary survey, 73% hospital managers confirm these results and see one of the advantages that it is possible to reduce costs through integration of hospitals. The largest savings, according to hospital managers, are due to central purchasing and investments, together and they have a better negotiation position with suppliers.

We can confirm that horizontal integration of hospitals can lead to reduction of costs and higher efficiency, in the specific environment of region hospitals at NUTS 3 level.