Evaluation of Terminal Life Cost for Patients Admitted in Teaching Hospitals Affiliated with Kerman University of Medical Sciences in 2014

Amiresmaeili Mohammad Reza¹, Imani Elham², Jahad Sarvestani Amin³*

Ÿ Received: 10. 06. 2015             Ÿ Revised: 18. 04. 2015              Ÿ Accepted: 01. 07. 2015

2. MSc, School of Management, Rasht Islamic Azad University, Gilan, Iran

3. MSc, Research Center for Modeling in Health, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.

*Correspondence: School of Management & Medical Information Science, Kerman University of Medical Siences, Haft Bagh Alavi Blv,Kerman, Iran.

Tel: +989176358861                                  Email: sarvestani1989@gmail.com

Introduction: End-of-life care is important considering the ethical issues, and the high health care costs are associated with it. Being informed of these costs can help managers in planning and making policy on this type of services. Hence, this study aimed to assess the costs of end-of-life care for patients admitted to hospitals in Kerman.

Method: The present study is a descriptive-analytical study which was performed retrospectively in Kerman University of medical sciences in 2013. The population consisted of all expired patients of two hospitals in Kerman whom all were studied according to a census basis. Data analysis was carried out using inferential (linear regression, Anova, and Independent T test) and descriptive statistics through SPSS 19.

Results: The most and the least studied cases related to cardiovascular disease (23%) and gastrointestinal disease (2.5­­%) respectively. On the other hand, the most and the least expenses were for neurological diseases and cancers respectively. However in Afzalipoor hospital, the highest and the lowest costs were for cardiovascular diseases and metabolic diseases respectively. And in Shafa hospital the highest and the lowest costs were for neurological and gastrointestinal diseases.

Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the cost of end-of-lifecare in Iran, like other countries, is high, but little attention is paid to palliative care for patients in this stage, and the provided services will cause a waste of resources because there is no chance forrecovery for these patients. So we should pay special attention to palliative care.

Key­words: Cost, End of life care, Hospital

Citation: Amiresmaeili Mohammad R, Imani E, Jahad Sarvestani A. Evaluation of Terminal Life Cost for Patients Admitted in Teaching Hospitals Affiliated with Kerman University of Medical Sciences in 2014. Journal of Health Based Research 2015 1(2): 133-143.