Assessment of the Impact of Policies to Control the Cost of Drugs and Medical Supplies at Tharuea Hospital, Phra Nakorn Sri Ayuttaya Province

Abstract

This research was a descriptive research which aimed to evaluate two impact dimensions that included the economic impacts and clinical impacts. Part 1 aimed to assess the economic impact. The data were collected entirely for 6 months before and after applying the policies to control the cost of drugs and medical supplies and then compared the cost and expense both drugs and medical supplies. Part 2 aimed to assess the clinical impact. The researcher collected data of patients based on databases of upper respiratory tract infections of HOSxP program. The sample group was selected by random sample of 957 patients after receiving treatment in the hospital. They had been monitored for 15 days. The samples were asked whether the policies to control the cost of drugs affected the patients or not. The results for the part of economic impacts revealed that the policies to control the cost of drugs and medical supplies had affected the patients by reducing the expense of drugs while the expense of medical supplies cannot be reduced. However, for the part of clinical impact, it showed 936 (97.8 percent) of the patients with upper respiratory tract infections from 957 patients recovered from these diseases. The policies to control the cost of drugs help to reduce the expense of drugs, while these policies did not affect the patients with upper respiratory tract infections. However, how to reduce the value of purchasing should be investigated.