The Saskatchewan/New Brunswick Healthy Start-Départ Santé intervention: implementation cost estimates of a physical activity and healthy eating intervention in early learning centers

Training sessions by year and community size (large, medium, small and rural) in Saskatchewan. Table S2. Training sessions by year and community size (large, medium, small and rural) in New Brunswick. Table S3. Booster Sessions by year and community size (large, medium, small and rural) in Saskatchewan.Table S4. Booster Sessions by year and community size (large, medium, small and rural) in New Brunswick. (PDF 271 kb

Consumer Spending for Pharmaceuticals and Its Implications for Health Care Financing: The Case of Kazakhstan

The health care sector in the countries of the former Soviet Union experienced significant changes in the 1990s and moved away from the principle of providing free care. Kazakhstan experienced a similar trend in financing pharmaceuticals. After the introduction of direct patient contributions for outpatient pharmaceuticals, the economic burden on poor and rural people increased significantly. This article examines various policy changes in promoting equity and analyzes the implications and feasibility of subsidy programs on the health care budget. The simulations from a two-part model suggest that the program covering the poor increases the health care budget by 7.7 percent. This increases to 20 percent when extended to people in rural areas. Instead of adopting a straightforward subsidy program for certain groups, this article identifies policy alternatives that may enhance social welfare by decreasing economic inefficiencies.

Additional file 1: of The effects of patient education programs on medication use among asthma and COPD patients: a propensity score matching with a difference-in-difference regression approach

There is an online appendix uploaded in pdf format with a file name ofHSR_Online_appendix. It presents the full results from our empirical analysis including a brief description of databases used in this paper. (PDF 856 kb

An economic analysis of a system wide Lean approach: cost estimations for the implementation of Lean in the Saskatchewan healthcare system for 2012–2014

Abstract Background The costs of investing in health care reform initiatives to improve quality and safety have been underreported and are often underestimated. This paper reports direct and indirect cost estimates for the initial phase of the province-wide implementation of Lean activities in Saskatchewan, Canada. Methods In order to obtain detailed information about each type of Lean event, as well as the total number of corresponding Lean events, we used the Provincial Kaizen Promotion Office (PKPO) Kaizen database. While the indirect cost of Lean implementation has been estimated using the corresponding wage rate for the event participants, the direct cost has been estimated using the fees paid to the consultant and other relevant expenses. Results The total cost for implementation of Lean over two years (2012–2014), including consultants and new hires, ranged from $44 million CAD to$49.6 million CAD, depending upon the assumptions used. Consultant costs accounted for close to 50% of the total. The estimated cost of Lean events alone ranged from $16 million CAD to$19.5 million CAD, with Rapid Process Improvement Workshops requiring the highest input of resources. Conclusions Recognizing the substantial financial and human investments required to undertake reforms designed to improve quality and contain cost, policy makers must carefully consider whether and how these efforts result in the desired transformations. Evaluation of the outcomes of these investments must be part of the accountability framework, even prior to implementation