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Cost of Investigating Neurological Disease: Experience of a Tertiary Care Center in Karachi, Pakistan

Introduction: Neurological disorders, structural or functional, are prevalent all over the world and are accompanied by physical and social morbidity. In this study, we aimed to calculate the cost of investigating neurological disorders and compare the costs incurred in a government hospital with th...

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Autores principales: Faruqi, Sidra J, Shahbaz, Naila N, Nisa, Qamar, Umer, Sumera R, Ali, Syed G, Aziz, Muhammad Y
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cureus 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7437137/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32832289
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.9291
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author Faruqi, Sidra J
Shahbaz, Naila N
Nisa, Qamar
Umer, Sumera R
Ali, Syed G
Aziz, Muhammad Y
author_facet Faruqi, Sidra J
Shahbaz, Naila N
Nisa, Qamar
Umer, Sumera R
Ali, Syed G
Aziz, Muhammad Y
author_sort Faruqi, Sidra J
collection PubMed
description Introduction: Neurological disorders, structural or functional, are prevalent all over the world and are accompanied by physical and social morbidity. In this study, we aimed to calculate the cost of investigating neurological disorders and compare the costs incurred in a government hospital with that in a private hospital. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted at the Dr. Ruth KM Pfau Civil Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan. One hundred patients were enrolled in the study; 10 each investigated for epilepsy, cerebrovascular accidents (CVAs), headache, neuropathy, myopathy, cranial nerve palsies, movement disorders, demyelinating diseases, central nervous system (CNS) infections, and dementia. Receipts and records in the patients’ medical history were used for the calculation of the cost of procedures, which was then compared with the costs of these investigations in a private hospital. A bottom-up costing approach was taken with individual costs being estimated and then being grouped to calculate the overall economic burden of the disorders. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 23.0. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was done to compare the mean cost (taken by the patient, covered by the government, total cost in the government hospital, and total cost in the private hospital) across diseases in government and private hospitals separately. Pearson correlation and scatter plot were also done to study the cost in private and public hospitals. p-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. The margin of error in the study was 5%. Results: The mean age was 38.2 ± 20.5 years. Some 51% data were received from female samples. The mean income of samples was 13863.6 ± 9715.9 Pakistani Rupees (PKR) or 78.38 ± 58.29 United States Dollars (USD). The mean cost covered by government hospitals was 8866.0 ± 5071.0 PKR (53.19 ± 30.42 USD) per patient, whereas in government hospitals patients were charged on average 2662.9 ± 3774.7 PKR (16 ± 22.65 USD), while in private hospitals patients paid on average 29041.3 ± 12992.6 PKR (174.21 ± 78 USD). Conclusion: The costs of investigations in private hospitals were approximately three times the costs in government hospitals. The maximum cost was generated by patients being investigated for demyelinating disorders. Investigations conducted in government-run hospitals are more cost effective and these institutions should receive increased funding to cater to the maximum number of patients.
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spelling pubmed-74371372020-08-21 Cost of Investigating Neurological Disease: Experience of a Tertiary Care Center in Karachi, Pakistan Faruqi, Sidra J Shahbaz, Naila N Nisa, Qamar Umer, Sumera R Ali, Syed G Aziz, Muhammad Y Cureus Neurology Introduction: Neurological disorders, structural or functional, are prevalent all over the world and are accompanied by physical and social morbidity. In this study, we aimed to calculate the cost of investigating neurological disorders and compare the costs incurred in a government hospital with that in a private hospital. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted at the Dr. Ruth KM Pfau Civil Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan. One hundred patients were enrolled in the study; 10 each investigated for epilepsy, cerebrovascular accidents (CVAs), headache, neuropathy, myopathy, cranial nerve palsies, movement disorders, demyelinating diseases, central nervous system (CNS) infections, and dementia. Receipts and records in the patients’ medical history were used for the calculation of the cost of procedures, which was then compared with the costs of these investigations in a private hospital. A bottom-up costing approach was taken with individual costs being estimated and then being grouped to calculate the overall economic burden of the disorders. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 23.0. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was done to compare the mean cost (taken by the patient, covered by the government, total cost in the government hospital, and total cost in the private hospital) across diseases in government and private hospitals separately. Pearson correlation and scatter plot were also done to study the cost in private and public hospitals. p-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. The margin of error in the study was 5%. Results: The mean age was 38.2 ± 20.5 years. Some 51% data were received from female samples. The mean income of samples was 13863.6 ± 9715.9 Pakistani Rupees (PKR) or 78.38 ± 58.29 United States Dollars (USD). The mean cost covered by government hospitals was 8866.0 ± 5071.0 PKR (53.19 ± 30.42 USD) per patient, whereas in government hospitals patients were charged on average 2662.9 ± 3774.7 PKR (16 ± 22.65 USD), while in private hospitals patients paid on average 29041.3 ± 12992.6 PKR (174.21 ± 78 USD). Conclusion: The costs of investigations in private hospitals were approximately three times the costs in government hospitals. The maximum cost was generated by patients being investigated for demyelinating disorders. Investigations conducted in government-run hospitals are more cost effective and these institutions should receive increased funding to cater to the maximum number of patients. Cureus 2020-07-20 /pmc/articles/PMC7437137/ /pubmed/32832289 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.9291 Text en Copyright © 2020, Faruqi et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Neurology
Faruqi, Sidra J
Shahbaz, Naila N
Nisa, Qamar
Umer, Sumera R
Ali, Syed G
Aziz, Muhammad Y
Cost of Investigating Neurological Disease: Experience of a Tertiary Care Center in Karachi, Pakistan
title Cost of Investigating Neurological Disease: Experience of a Tertiary Care Center in Karachi, Pakistan
title_full Cost of Investigating Neurological Disease: Experience of a Tertiary Care Center in Karachi, Pakistan
title_fullStr Cost of Investigating Neurological Disease: Experience of a Tertiary Care Center in Karachi, Pakistan
title_full_unstemmed Cost of Investigating Neurological Disease: Experience of a Tertiary Care Center in Karachi, Pakistan
title_short Cost of Investigating Neurological Disease: Experience of a Tertiary Care Center in Karachi, Pakistan
title_sort cost of investigating neurological disease: experience of a tertiary care center in karachi, pakistan
topic Neurology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7437137/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32832289
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.9291
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