by Nigel Michell, PowerHealth Solutions Consultant
as featured in TALKING CASEMIX May 2002
Introduction
Over the past decade, significant changes have been made to the financing and management of healthcare services. There has been a move away from traditional historical based funding, to an increasing focus on output measurement and Casemix based payment systems. To complicate matters further, these changes have been made in a climate of shrinking budgets, contestability, service agreements, outsourcing and privatisation.
The above changes, coupled with increasing demands for cost effective healthcare services, have emphasised the need for better healthcare information to ensure that the goal of optimal service levels are achieved. In the Allied Health context, there is a need to ensure that the professions are able to clearly quantify and cost the services they provide, to facilitate effective management in an ever-changing environment. These requirements will be discussed in more detail below.
Importance of the Allied Health Professions
Analysis of the submitted South Australian metropolitan hospitals patient costs for 1999/2000 indicates that Allied Health costs represent 2.1% of overall admitted costs (refer to Table 1). This relatively small percentage does not truly reflect the importance of Allied Health interventions in the successful treatment of both admitted and non-admitted patients. It is clear that Allied Health practitioners have a significant impact on both patient outcomes and healthcare costs, as a result of their ability to provide an extensive range of services, from preventative treatments such as early ambulation, swallowing management post stroke, diabetic education and pre and post operative physiotherapy through to acute rehabilitation.
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