Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39090621›Full record

ArticleCost effectiveness and resource allocation : C/E2024

Cost and efficiency analysis in Iranian primary health centers: a micro costing and data envelopment analysis.

Alireza Mahboub-Ahar, Somayeh Khanlari, Hasan Yusefzadeh, Alireza Ghorbani

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Article in Cost effectiveness and resource allocation : C/E, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Alireza Mahboub-AharDepartment of Health Economics, School of Management and Medical Informatics, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Somayeh KhanlariDepartment of Health Policy & Management, School of Management and Medical Informatics, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Hasan YusefzadehDepartment of Health Economics and Management, School of Public Health, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran.
Alireza GhorbaniDepartment of Public Health, School of Health, Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, Sabzevar, Iran. ghorbania1474@yahoo.com.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundHealth Complex Model was implemented to provide primary health care services in urban, especially in slum areas. As a pilot at a provincial level, Chamran Health Complex offers healthcare for more than 57,000 residents of Tabriz. Despite the necessity of cost information in healthcare decision-making, there was limited knowledge about the unit cost of services. This study aims to analyze the cost and efficiency of health centers.

methodsActivity-Based Costing method with direct and step-down allocation methods was adopted. We estimated unit costs in a hypothetical scenario according to national standards to quantify the gap between current and standard practice. Input-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis was administered to measure the efficiency of health centers.

resultsThe total cost of the complex was $2,841,897, of which 67% ($1910373) and 33% ($931523) were accounted for direct and indirect costs, respectively. The vaccination center had the lowest ($9), and the occupational health center had the highest average unit cost ($76). The average technical efficiency of the health centers was 0.519, where the HC1 and HC3 showed the best performance.

conclusionThere is remarkable variability in service costs across health centers, which must be addressed in performance management and contracting practices. Although we found a gap between current and standard practice in terms of staff and facilities according to national standards, Chamran Health Complex has an untouched capacity that can be utilized with better planning and without incurring additional costs. It raises the need for revising national standards by the Iran Ministry of Health.

Indexed as

Cost analysisData envelopment analysisEfficiencyHealth centers

Identifiers

PMID39090621
PMCPMC11295886

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.