Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Sharing System for Electronic Patients Records Among Healthcare Institutions / 대한의료정보학회지

ABSTRACT

In 2000, Korea Health Industry Development Institute(KHIDI) made a plan for sharing electronic patient records between health care institutions which reflects the advance of information technology. The implementation of the plan is believed to have a number of desirable effects such as direct and indirect medical cost savings, the increase in patient satisfaction, the rationalization of health care institution management, and the improvement of health care delivery system. At the same time, however, it requires a great amount of resources for building the system at first and maintaining it since then nationwide. Therefore, the economic evaluation is required for the plan to be undertaken. This paper assessed the plan from economic perspective. In particular, cost-benefit analysis was performed and the result showed that the present value of net benefit, or the social profit is 3,046.3 billion won over the period of 2000-2030. Also, the benefit-cost ratio turned out to be 1.25. The results of cost-benefit analysis confirmed that the benefits of the plan justify the costs.