Survey Management of Residents' Awareness of the Cost of Hospital Paraclinical Measures Publisher



Pourahangarian J¹ ; Masoumi B² ; Hashemian AM³ ; Zerepoosh FB⁴ ; Derakhshanfar H⁴
Source: Biomedical and Pharmacology Journal Published:2014

Abstract

Physicians' role in reducing health care costs is obvious and undeniable. Therefore, the current study seeks to Survey management of residents' awareness of the cost of hospital paraclinical measures. This study used avalid and reliable questionnaire to evaluate the residents' awareness regarding thecost of tests, including CBC, ESR, U/A, troponin, chest radiography, ultrasound of abdomenand pelvis, CT scan of head. Any estimate in the range of 25% of actual price was considered as the correct estimate. Data was analyzed using t-test, chi-square and drawing Box Plot. Significance level was determined p<0.05. 90 residents (54.4% male) were studied. With the exception of chest radiography (48/0 = p), average costs estimated by residents in the diagnostic tests of CBC (p<0.0001), ESR (p<0.0001), UA (p<0.0001), troponin (p=0.004), ultrasound (p=0.01) and CT scan of head (p<0.0001) differed from the actual price. Also, the average error in estimating the costs of CBC, ESR, UA, troponin, chest radiography, ultrasound and CT scan of head was 243.6%, 798.2%, 229.8%, 22.3%, 5.7%, 35.1% and 56.1%, respectively. On average, only 24.3% of residents were aware of the real cost of laboratory fees. The results showed that the management level information of assistants of internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics and emergency medicine about the cost of paraclinical measures is low and the level of education regarding awareness of these costsis inadequate.