医疗服务质量和费用关系的国际研究综述

Correlation between quality and expenditure of medical care: a review of international studies

医疗服务质量和费用是卫生保健系统经常面临的两个互相竞争的关键要素。医疗费用的不断上涨是否带来质量的提升是不同卫生保健系统共同关注的问题,解决该问题的核心在于了解医疗服务质量和费用之间的关系。本文通过对国外有关质量和费用关系的理论与实践研究进行综述,基于Donabedian结构—过程—结果三维度质量框架进行归纳分析,尝试对目前该主题的研究进展进行系统梳理和展示。研究结果显示,现有研究的分析单位一般基于地区、服务提供者、病人等水平;不同研究所用到的质量指标差异较大;较多研究关注结果质量和费用的关系,而对于结构质量和过程质量与费用关系的研究尚不足;多数研究基于住院环境下,较少研究关注门诊环境,缺乏二者对比的研究。基于现有证据,尚无法对医疗服务质量和费用的关系得出一致的结论,但不同研究所用到的质量指标、数据与方法或局限性等仍值得未来的研究借鉴,以便于更客观合理的对质量和费用关系进行探讨。

The health care system has always faced challenges from two competing fronts： rising costs and quality concerns. The common issue of debate confronted by various health care systems is whether or not rising medi cal expenditure can lead to quality improvements. The key to addressing this issue is to figure out the correlation between quality of care and medical expenditure. Based on Donabedian’s structure, process and outcome quality theory, this study reviews relevant international studies related to this topic in order to provide empirical evidence in a clearer way. Results show that the analysis of current studies have typically been based on the regional level, health provider level and patient level; the quality indicators used varied among studies while expenditure indicators had much in common;more studies were found to focus on the association between outcome quality and expenditure while less studies explored the link between structure or process quality and expenditure; additionally, the majority of relevant studies were located in the inpatient setting and studies from outpatient settings were found to be lacking. Overall, according to current knowledge, no inclusive conclusion could be obtained, but quality indicators, data and methods, and limitations revealed in these studies can be reviewed by future study to explore the correlation between quality and expenditure of medical care in a more objective way.