An Early Discharge Program (EDP) for medically uncomplicated obstetrics patients operates from three hospitals in Sydney's western suburbs, Westmead Hospital, a large teaching hospital, and Auburn and Blacktown, which are smaller district hospitals. The patients are discharged home between 6 and...

A cost effectiveness analysis of differing school based TB infection screening regimes was conducted for 1996 populations of Year 1 and Year 8 students who attended schools in the areas of Central Sydney Area Health Service and South Western Sydney Area Health Service. The costs of screening...

In June 1990 the Australian Health Ministers endorsed a policy, known as the Nationally Funded Centres (NFC) programme, aimed at providing new and developing technologies in a coordinated and planned way on a national basis. The principal objective was to ensure that such technologies were...

This analysis compared the costs and benefits of tamoxifen for women with early breast cancer. The main question addressed was: what are the costs and benefits of the use of tamoxifen as an adjuvant treatment in terms of survival and disease free survival for women? Survival and disease free...

A study of client satisfaction with postnatal care was conducted to ascertain the extent to which a program for the early discharge of obstetric patients meets its clients' needs. Women who were eligible for early discharge were surveyed at the end of their period of postnatal care. Satisfaction...

The Australian hospital system is characterised by the co-existence of private hospitals, where individuals pay for services and public hospitals, where services are free to all but delivered after a waiting time. The decision to purchase insurance for private hospital treatment depends on the...

Many countries, including Australia, regulate the price consumers pay for pharmaceuticals. In this paper, the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) is modelled as a multi-stage game played between the regulator and pharmaceutical firms. Conditions are derived under which vertically...

The development of new genetic technology brings with it responsibility for evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of testing programs, including gaining an understanding of the value of information. This study examined the factors individuals took into account when making decisions about...

The research evidence on the relationships between patient throughput and costs and outcomes indicate that, for cardiac and vascular surgery, outcomes are better in units with high rates of patient activity. However, the gains to increasing throughput are most substantial at rates of activity...

The use of Stated Preference Discrete Choice Modelling (SPDCM) is gaining currency in the health economics field as a method of eliciting: preferences for goods and services; the rate at which individuals are prepared to trade off different attributes of a good or service; and the willingness to...