ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To find the costs of the products in the set of offered services and the costs of Primary Care Centre services, using the costs of functioning. DESIGN: Descriptive study. SETTING: Primary Care Centres. PARTICIPANTS: Seven Primary Care Centres managed by the Catalan Institute of Health. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The costs of chapters I (staff) and II (running costs) from the budget accounting of the 1993 exercise. The average costs per product of unplanned attendance on the general practitioner (768 pesetas) and paediatrician (1,152 pesetas) are lower than for general medical (3,291 pes) or paediatric (5,303) nursing. The cost of paediatrics is higher than general medicine for any type of medical attendance. Average costs for unplanned attendance at the odontologist (3,804 pes) and social worker (10,661 pes) are higher than for other professionals. Services with cost per inhabitant are, in order of precedence: paediatrics (13,343 pesetas/inhabitant), general medicine (6,401), odontology (811) and social work (292). CONCLUSIONS: The analysis of costs of products and services allows us to know and compare findings for different health providers.
Subject(s)
Primary Health Care/economics , Adult , Child , Cost Control , Costs and Cost Analysis , Economics, Medical , Health Services/economics , House Calls/economics , Humans , Office Visits/economics , Social Work/economics , Spain , SpecializationABSTRACT
The ascertainment of the factors that directly or indirectly influence the prescription of medication is a starting point to set up different strategies focused on the improvement of the utilization of medications. The purpose of this work is to assess which factors, closely related with physicians, with the population they cover, as well as with the health care infrastructure of our "Area of Management" (health district), are significantly associated with the prescription of medication, as well as to ascertain if there is, in our environment, a defined profile of those physicians having higher prescription rates. Using the Institut Català de la Salut (ICS) database, and through with the use linear multiple regression, it can be shown that: a) the expense due to medications is higher in those sectors having a larger number of physicians per 1,000 inhabitants; and b) a profile of large prescriptions cannot be established based on the variables selected in this study.
