Frugal Innovations for Delivering Child Cardiac Care in India.
Private hospital charged more than double for pediatric heart surgery than charity hospital.
Frugal Innovations for Delivering Child Cardiac Care in India.
Congenital heart defects (congenital heart defects) affect approximately 240,000 newborns annually in India, where lifesaving surgical interventions are inaccessible and unaffordable for rural populations.
The objective of this project was to identify opportunities for improving congenital cardiac care delivery in low- and middle-income countries via comparative analysis of the costs and health care outcomes of pediatric cardiac surgery in India between two health care systems: one that provides care free of charge to patients under a philanthropy model and one private institute that charges for services.
private care cost more than double what charity care cost per surgery
The authors examined the surgeries for tetralogy of Fallot (tetralogy of Fallot) and ventricular septal defect (ventricular septal defect) and they assessed health care outcomes to evaluate the value of care, using the Risk Adjustment for Congenital Heart Surgery score to evaluate comparable cases.
The average mortality rate of 2.96% for 846 surgeries at Sanjeevani Hospitals was comparable to a 1.91% mortality rate for 629 surgeries at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (P=0.2).
Several drivers of lower-cost care were identified at Sanjeevani Hospitals, such as the inclusion of patients' families in the care continuum and lower administrative costs.
By addressing financial challenges in care delivery, health care systems in global health contexts can improve access to lifesaving surgery, contributing to greater health equity and improved clinical and socioeconomic outcomes.