Cargando…

Time and labour costs of preventive health care, including vaccinations, in Finnish child health clinics

In Finland all children are entitled to regular health check-up visits at child health clinics (CHC). During the visits public health nurses and physicians follow-up the growth and development of the child, evaluate the welfare of the family, give health counselling and vaccinate the children. The a...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Nieminen, Heta, Hakulinen, Tuovi, Puumalainen, Taneli, Sirén, Päivi, Palmu, Arto A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9529095/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36190966
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270835
_version_ 1784801428779302912
author Nieminen, Heta
Hakulinen, Tuovi
Puumalainen, Taneli
Sirén, Päivi
Palmu, Arto A.
author_facet Nieminen, Heta
Hakulinen, Tuovi
Puumalainen, Taneli
Sirén, Päivi
Palmu, Arto A.
author_sort Nieminen, Heta
collection PubMed
description In Finland all children are entitled to regular health check-up visits at child health clinics (CHC). During the visits public health nurses and physicians follow-up the growth and development of the child, evaluate the welfare of the family, give health counselling and vaccinate the children. The aim of this study was to measure the time used by the nurses and physicians for different tasks during the visits and evaluate the costs of preventive health care procedures. Special emphasis was on time and costs used for administering vaccinations. The study was conducted in four CHCs. Trained observers measured the time used for predefined tasks with a stopwatch application operating on a tablet computer. Labour costs of visits and vaccinations were evaluated by using the gross average salary costs of health care personnel. Time used for vaccine logistics and other administrative tasks was obtained by interviewing the nurses in charge of the vaccine logistics at each CHC. Altogether 325 CHC visits of children <13 months were followed. Public health nurse used for a visit in average 49 (range 12–101) minutes, and the corresponding labour costs were 17 (4–35) Euros. Vaccines were administered at 183 visits. Children got on average 2.4 (1–4) vaccine doses per visit. The observed time used for vaccinations was 10.2 (1.6–25) minutes and the costs 3.58 (0.57–8.62) Euros per visit. The observed time included guidance, preparation, administration, and documentation of vaccinations. Adding one dose into a visit increased the time spent on vaccination on average 2.8 minutes (0.99 Euros). The mean non-observed time used for vaccine logistics outside the visits was 3.4 minutes and cost 1.19 Euros per dose. Administering of the vaccines of the Finnish vaccination programme is relatively simple and inexpensive because Finnish children have regular scheduled visits to CHCs.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9529095
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-95290952022-10-04 Time and labour costs of preventive health care, including vaccinations, in Finnish child health clinics Nieminen, Heta Hakulinen, Tuovi Puumalainen, Taneli Sirén, Päivi Palmu, Arto A. PLoS One Research Article In Finland all children are entitled to regular health check-up visits at child health clinics (CHC). During the visits public health nurses and physicians follow-up the growth and development of the child, evaluate the welfare of the family, give health counselling and vaccinate the children. The aim of this study was to measure the time used by the nurses and physicians for different tasks during the visits and evaluate the costs of preventive health care procedures. Special emphasis was on time and costs used for administering vaccinations. The study was conducted in four CHCs. Trained observers measured the time used for predefined tasks with a stopwatch application operating on a tablet computer. Labour costs of visits and vaccinations were evaluated by using the gross average salary costs of health care personnel. Time used for vaccine logistics and other administrative tasks was obtained by interviewing the nurses in charge of the vaccine logistics at each CHC. Altogether 325 CHC visits of children <13 months were followed. Public health nurse used for a visit in average 49 (range 12–101) minutes, and the corresponding labour costs were 17 (4–35) Euros. Vaccines were administered at 183 visits. Children got on average 2.4 (1–4) vaccine doses per visit. The observed time used for vaccinations was 10.2 (1.6–25) minutes and the costs 3.58 (0.57–8.62) Euros per visit. The observed time included guidance, preparation, administration, and documentation of vaccinations. Adding one dose into a visit increased the time spent on vaccination on average 2.8 minutes (0.99 Euros). The mean non-observed time used for vaccine logistics outside the visits was 3.4 minutes and cost 1.19 Euros per dose. Administering of the vaccines of the Finnish vaccination programme is relatively simple and inexpensive because Finnish children have regular scheduled visits to CHCs. Public Library of Science 2022-10-03 /pmc/articles/PMC9529095/ /pubmed/36190966 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270835 Text en © 2022 Nieminen et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/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 author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Nieminen, Heta
Hakulinen, Tuovi
Puumalainen, Taneli
Sirén, Päivi
Palmu, Arto A.
Time and labour costs of preventive health care, including vaccinations, in Finnish child health clinics
title Time and labour costs of preventive health care, including vaccinations, in Finnish child health clinics
title_full Time and labour costs of preventive health care, including vaccinations, in Finnish child health clinics
title_fullStr Time and labour costs of preventive health care, including vaccinations, in Finnish child health clinics
title_full_unstemmed Time and labour costs of preventive health care, including vaccinations, in Finnish child health clinics
title_short Time and labour costs of preventive health care, including vaccinations, in Finnish child health clinics
title_sort time and labour costs of preventive health care, including vaccinations, in finnish child health clinics
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9529095/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36190966
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270835
work_keys_str_mv AT nieminenheta timeandlabourcostsofpreventivehealthcareincludingvaccinationsinfinnishchildhealthclinics
AT hakulinentuovi timeandlabourcostsofpreventivehealthcareincludingvaccinationsinfinnishchildhealthclinics
AT puumalainentaneli timeandlabourcostsofpreventivehealthcareincludingvaccinationsinfinnishchildhealthclinics
AT sirenpaivi timeandlabourcostsofpreventivehealthcareincludingvaccinationsinfinnishchildhealthclinics
AT palmuartoa timeandlabourcostsofpreventivehealthcareincludingvaccinationsinfinnishchildhealthclinics