The Study On Economic Evaluation Of Telemedicine Service Based On Cost Estimation

Background:Telemedicine is a new kind of medical model which combines medical technology with computer communication technology,it breaks through the limitation of medical resources in terms of time and space,bringing high quality medical service resources to remote areas and other special environment,alleviates the disequilibrium of medical resources between urban and rural areas and between regions in a certain extent,and effectively solves the problem of residents' medical treatment.But how is the telemedicine service project be priced in the running? How is it working? It is an urgent problem to be solved.Therefore,it is urgent to measure the cost of telemedicine service.Objective:This study measures the cost of telemedicine service,to compare the relationship between the telemedicine unit cost,price and volume of business,in order to understand the operation of hospital telemedicine service;through the construction of the representative input-output indexes of economics of the telemedicine,the whole situation of input-output of telemedicine were studied;through the study of correlation test of indicators,the relationship between cost and benefit indexes was found out;finally,through the comprehensive evaluation of the telemedical input and output of economics,the main problems existing in the implementation of telemedical service are found out,and put forward feasible countermeasures and suggestions.Methods:Qualitative Research Method: Through literature review and descriptive analysis,analyze the necessity and implementation of telemedicine;Through using literature review and expert consultation,we can establish the representative input and output indexes of economics of the telemedicine service;the descriptive analysis methods were used to sort out the data of input and output of telemedicine in the sample hospital,to analyze the overall operation of telemedicine in the sample hospital.Quantitative analysis method: By collecting secondary data and using economic principle to calculate the cost of telemedicine services;and the chi-square test was used to analyze the relevant indicators in different years;Questionnaire survey was used to collect information about satisfaction and popularity of telemedicine;Pearson Correlation Coefficient and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution were used for the correlation analysis and comprehensive evaluation of total input and output of telemedicine services in the sample hospital.Results:1.The cost of telemedicine services is high,the proportion of fixed assets cost is the highest,and labor cost is the second.2.The average unit costs of the representative project of telemedicine services are higher than their average prices,there are a large gap between the charging standards and the project costs in the implementation of the telemedicine services,and the revenues from the telemedicine services cannot make up for the costs.3.Through using literature review and expert consultation,the representative input and output indexes of economic of telemedicine service were established,the final two categories of 12 indexes,including the Hardware cost,Housing costs,Labor cost,Operation cost and Expert fees six input indicators,Medical service quality,Medical service efficiency,Scientific Research Training,awareness,the difficulty and high cost of getting medical service and the satisfaction seven output indicators.4.Based on the calculation of telemedicine service cost,the correlation analysis of the economic input and output indexes of telemedical service can be found that the total cost of telemedicine has a linear negative with the rescue success rate,the bedsrate of utilization of hospital beds,the bed turnover times,the annual average outpatient volume,the annual volume of hospitalization,the Per capita hospitalization expenses,the Per capita hospitalization expenses of the insured and the total cost of telemedicine has a linear positive correlation with average length of stay and research paper.5.According to the evaluation of Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution method we can find the comprehensive evaluation of the input-output indexes of economics of the telemedicine,the results of telemedicine assessment in 2014 were the best,followed by 2013,and the result of telemedicine assessment were the worst in 2015.Suggestions:1.The government should strengthen support for telemedicine and provide financial and policy support;2.Set up the standards of telemedicine industry to reduce cost duplication and increase the efficiency of resource utilization;3.Carry out economic evaluation of telemedicine to objectively analyze the implementation value of telemedicine;4.Reasonable control of the expenses standard of telemedicine;5.Innovating the continuous operation mode of telemedicine.