Department of Health Management, Policy and Economics, Faculty of Management and Medical Information Sciences, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
BMC Public Health. 2023 Oct 27;23(1):2118. doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-17045-0.
Identifying factors affecting health costs can contribute to formulating the best policies for controlling and managing health costs. To this end, the present study aimed to analyze resource wastage and identify the factors underlying it in COVID-19 management in Iran's health sector.
This qualitative content analysis study was conducted in Iran's health sector. The participants were 23 senior, middle, and operational managers in the health sector. The data were collected through semistructured interviews with the managers. The participants were selected using purposive, quota, and snowball sampling techniques. The interviews continued until the data were saturated. The collected data were analyzed using MAXQDA software (version 10).
Following the data analysis, the factors affecting the wastage of health resources were divided into 4 themes and 13 main themes. Vaccines, diagnostic kits, medicines, and human resources were the main factors underlying resource wastage. The identified main themes were open and unused vials, nonuse of distributed vaccines and their expiration, excess supply and decreased demand for vaccines, expiration of diagnostic and laboratory kits and their quantitative and qualitative defects, and the large number of tests. Inefficiency and the expiration of COVID-19 drugs, poor drug supply and consumption chain management, inaccuracy in inventory control and expiration dates, disorganization and inconsistency in the distribution of healthcare staff, low productivity of the staff, and failure to match the staff's skills with assigned tasks in selected centers were identified as the most important causes of resource wastage.
Given the limited health funds and the increased healthcare costs, effective preparation and planning and making reasonable decisions for unexpected events can minimize unnecessary costs and resource wastage, which requires some revisions in attitudes toward COVID-19 management in the healthcare sector.
确定影响医疗费用的因素有助于制定控制和管理医疗费用的最佳政策。为此，本研究旨在分析 COVID-19 管理中伊朗卫生部门的资源浪费及其背后的因素。
本定性内容分析研究在伊朗卫生部门进行。参与者为 23 名卫生部门的高级、中级和运营经理。数据通过对经理的半结构化访谈收集。采用目的抽样、配额抽样和滚雪球抽样技术选择参与者。访谈持续到数据饱和。使用 MAXQDA 软件（版本 10）分析收集的数据。
经过数据分析，影响卫生资源浪费的因素分为 4 个主题和 13 个主要主题。疫苗、诊断试剂盒、药品和人力资源是资源浪费的主要因素。确定的主要主题包括未使用的未开封小瓶、未使用分发的疫苗及其过期、疫苗供应过剩和需求减少、诊断和实验室试剂盒过期及其数量和质量缺陷、以及大量测试。效率低下和 COVID-19 药物过期、药物供应和消耗链管理不善、库存控制和过期日期不准确、医疗保健人员分配混乱和不一致、员工生产力低下以及选定中心的员工技能与分配任务不匹配被确定为资源浪费的最重要原因。
鉴于有限的卫生资金和增加的医疗保健成本，为意外事件做好有效准备和规划并做出合理决策，可以最大限度地减少不必要的成本和资源浪费，这需要对医疗保健部门的 COVID-19 管理态度进行一些修订。
