Variation in access to pediatric surgical care among coexisting public and private providers: inguinal hernia as a model

Autor: Ayman Al-Jazaeri, Lama Alshwairikh, Manar A. Aljebreen, Nourah AlSwaidan, Tarfah Al-Obaidan, Abdulrahman Alzahem
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2017
Předmět:
Zdroj: Annals of Saudi Medicine, Vol 37, Iss 4, Pp 290-296 (2017)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 0256-4947
0975-4466
DOI: 10.5144/0256-4947.2017.290
Popis: BACKGROUND: Faced with growing healthcare demand, the Saudi government is increasingly relying on privatization as a tool to improve patient access to care. Variation in children's access to surgical care between public (PB) and private providers (PV) has not been previously analyzed. OBJECTIVES: To compare access to pediatric surgical services between two coexisting PB and PV. DESIGN: Retrospective comparative study. SETTINGS: A major teaching hospital and the largest PV group in Saudi Arabia. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The outcomes for children who underwent inguinal herniotomy (IH) between May 2010 and December 2014 at both providers were with IH serving as the model. Data collected included patient demographics, insurance coverage, referral pattern and access parameters including time-to-surgery (TTS), surgery wait time (SWT) and duration of symptoms (DOS). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): TTS, SWT and DOS. RESULTS: Of 574 IH cases, 56 cases of in-hospital referrals were excluded leaving 290 PB and 228 PV cases. PV patients were younger (12.0 vs 16.4 months, P=.043) and more likely to be male (81.6% vs 72.8%, P=.019), expatriates (18% vs 3.4%, P
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