(The) effects of organized medical educational programs on the cost and productivity in health centers

Abstract

The issues of the cost versus benefit and the service versus education about medical education programs have been raised and discussed mainly in the inpatient settings. This study proposes to examine the role of medical education in primary care in health centers whose clienteles are mostly from the low-income population group and where the physicians are employed on a salary basis mostly financed by the federal grants. The principal objective of this study is to investigate the effects of medical education programs on the costs and productivity of health centers. The cost effects of medical education programs are estimated by comparing the differences in the unit costs of various categories between health centers with medical education programs and those without them. Then, a hypothetisized factors affecting the health center cost was analyzed. The result shows that the health centers with medical educational programs have less health service cost per health service encounter. There was no significant difference in the other categories of cost of health centers. Also, the result shows the multi-level processes through which medical education programs influence the unit cost and personnel productivity of health centers.