Irrational prescription and its costs in neonatal surfactant therapy: public and private hospitals of Iran in 2018

BMC Pediatrics

Research

Soheila Khodakarim¹  Reyhane Izadi²  Nader Jahanmehr³  Abbas Habibolahi⁴ 

[1] Department of Biostatistics, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran;Department of Health Care Management, School of Management and Information Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran;Health Economics, Management and Policy Department, Virtual School of Medical Education & Management, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran;Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran;Neonatal Health Department, Population, Family and School Health Office, Deputy of Health, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran;

关键词: Irrational prescription;    Costs;    Neonate;    Respiratory distress;    Surfactant therapy;    Respiratory distress;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12887-023-04045-7

 received in 2022-08-23, accepted in 2023-04-27,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundIrrational prescription and its subsequent costs are a major challenge worldwide. Health systems must provide appropriate conditions for the implementation of national and international strategies to prevent irrational prescription. The aim of the present study was to determine the irrational surfactant prescription among neonates with respiratory distress and the resulting direct medical costs for private and public hospitals in Iran.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional descriptive study performed retrospectively using data belonged to 846 patients. Initially, the data were extracted from the patients’ medical records and the information system of the Ministry of Health. The obtained data were then compared with the surfactant prescription guideline. Afterward, each neonatal surfactant prescription was evaluated based on the three filters listed in the guideline (including right drug, right dose, and right time). Finally, chi-square and ANOVA tests were used to investigate the inter-variable relationships.ResultsThe results showed that 37.47% of the prescriptions were irrational and the average costs of each irrational prescription was calculated as 274.37 dollars. It was estimated that irrational prescriptions account for about 53% of the total surfactant prescription cost. Among the selected provinces, Tehran and Ahvaz had the worst and the best performance, respectively. As well, public hospitals outperformed private hospitals in terms of the in drug selection, but they underperformed them in terms of the right dose determination.ConclusionThe results of the present study are considered as a warning to insurance organizations, in order to reduce unnecessary costs caused by these irrational prescriptions by developing new service purchase protocols. Our suggestion is the use of educational interventions to reduce irrational prescriptions due to drug selection as well as using computer alert approaches to reduce irrational prescriptions caused by wrong dose administration.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2023

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