“…Other studies in Cambodia analysed the costs of specific health services or conditions such as dengue fever [15], cervical cancer [16], and childhood survival [17], or the costs of specialised service providers such as a trauma hospital [18]. Consequently, relevant, up-to-date information regarding the actual costs of public health services in Cambodia is not available, and there is a need to update such knowledge based on a standard methodology.…”
BackgroundKnowledge of the costs of health services improves health facility management and aids in health financing for universal health coverage. Because of resource requirements that are often not present in low- and middle-income countries, costing exercises are rare and infrequent. Here we report findings from the initial phase of establishing a routine costing system for health services implemented in three provinces in Cambodia.MethodsData was collected for the 2016 financial year from 20 health centres (including four with beds) and five hospitals (three district hospitals and two provincial hospitals). The costs to the providers for health centres were calculated using step-down allocations for selected costing units, including preventive and curative services, delivery, and patient contact, while for hospitals this was complemented with bed-day and inpatient day per department. Costs were compared by type of facility and between provinces.ResultsAll required information was not readily available at health facilities and had to be recovered from various sources. Costs per outpatient consultation at health centres varied between provinces (from US$2.33 to US$4.89), as well as within provinces. Generally, costs were inversely correlated with the quantity of service output. Costs per contact were higher at health centres with beds than health centres without beds (US$4.59, compared to US$3.00). Conversely, costs for delivery were lower in health centres with beds (US$128.7, compared to US$413.7), mainly because of low performing health centres without beds. Costs per inpatient-day varied from US$27.61 to US$55.87 and were most expensive at the lowest level hospital.ConclusionsEstablishing a routine health service costing system appears feasible if recording and accounting procedures are improved. Information on service costs by health facility level can provide useful information to optimise the use of available financial and human resources.
“…Other studies in Cambodia analysed the costs of specific health services or conditions such as dengue fever [15], cervical cancer [16], and childhood survival [17], or the costs of specialised service providers such as a trauma hospital [18]. Consequently, relevant, up-to-date information regarding the actual costs of public health services in Cambodia is not available, and there is a need to update such knowledge based on a standard methodology.…”
BackgroundKnowledge of the costs of health services improves health facility management and aids in health financing for universal health coverage. Because of resource requirements that are often not present in low- and middle-income countries, costing exercises are rare and infrequent. Here we report findings from the initial phase of establishing a routine costing system for health services implemented in three provinces in Cambodia.MethodsData was collected for the 2016 financial year from 20 health centres (including four with beds) and five hospitals (three district hospitals and two provincial hospitals). The costs to the providers for health centres were calculated using step-down allocations for selected costing units, including preventive and curative services, delivery, and patient contact, while for hospitals this was complemented with bed-day and inpatient day per department. Costs were compared by type of facility and between provinces.ResultsAll required information was not readily available at health facilities and had to be recovered from various sources. Costs per outpatient consultation at health centres varied between provinces (from US$2.33 to US$4.89), as well as within provinces. Generally, costs were inversely correlated with the quantity of service output. Costs per contact were higher at health centres with beds than health centres without beds (US$4.59, compared to US$3.00). Conversely, costs for delivery were lower in health centres with beds (US$128.7, compared to US$413.7), mainly because of low performing health centres without beds. Costs per inpatient-day varied from US$27.61 to US$55.87 and were most expensive at the lowest level hospital.ConclusionsEstablishing a routine health service costing system appears feasible if recording and accounting procedures are improved. Information on service costs by health facility level can provide useful information to optimise the use of available financial and human resources.
“…An example can be found in Flessa et al. (2016), which investigate health policy support under uncertainty and presents a system dynamic model of cervical cancer in Cambodia.…”
Section: Analytical Methodologies In Developing Countriesmentioning
The growing availability of data coupled with advanced methods and computing power have fostered organizations to adopt business analytics in their decision‐making. Nevertheless, the application of analytics is subject to available resources and capabilities, and, therefore, differs from region to region. Developing countries in particular are exposed to circumstances that can limit the expansion of analytics within their domains. This may prohibit the acceleration of development efforts and, consequently, may result in delays in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) set for 2030. Taking this concern as a starting point, this paper provides the results of a survey on the status of analytics research in developing countries. Through a thorough review and classification of 142 articles published during 2009–2019, we characterize analytics in developing countries along three dimensions. First, we explore the mainstream methodologies appearing in the literature, which range from classic optimization techniques to more recent statistical and machine learning methods. Second, we identify 11 application areas that cover a broad range. Third, we focus on the linkages between the reviewed papers and the 17 UNSDGs. Along this dimension, we establish a connection between the literature and 13 goals, and illustrate how some of these contributions relate to some of the 169 targets set by United Nations. Goals such as gender equality are addressed to either little or no extent by the surveyed literature. Also, the survey reveals no adoption of indicators that are set to track the progress toward the targets.
“…The model can be easily enhanced to include the recovered population (SIR-model), exposed population (SEIR-model), different age-sets, re-infections, vaccinations, locations etc. The model has been applied to many infectious diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and cervical cancer [ 46 – 48 ]. Fig.…”
Background and objective
The COVID-19 pandemic started in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Although there are some doubts about the reporting of cases and deaths in China, it seems that this country was able to control the epidemic more effectively than many other countries. In this paper, we would like to analyze the measures taken in China and compare them with other countries in order to find out what they can learn from China.
Methods
We develop a system dynamics model of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan. Based on a number of simulations we analyze the impact of changing parameters, such as contact rates, on the development of a second wave.
Results
Although China’s health care system seems to be poorly financed and inefficient, the epidemic was brought under control in a comparably short period of time and no second wave was experienced in Wuhan until today. The measures to contain the epidemic do not differ from what was implemented in other countries, but China applied them very early and rigorously. For instance, the consequent implementation of health codes and contact-tracking technology contributed to contain the disease and effectively prevented the second and third waves.
Conclusions
China’s success in fighting COVID-19 is based on a very strict implementation of a set of measures, including digital management. While other countries discuss relaxing the lock-down at a rate of 50 per 100,000 inhabitants, China started local lock-downs at a rate of 3 per 100,000. We call for a public debate whether this policy would be feasible for more liberal countries as well.
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