Descriptive analysis of work and trends in anaesthesiology from 2005 to 2006: Quantitative and qualitative aspects of effects and evaluation of anaesthesia

Abstract

Introduction: In anaesthesiology, economic aspects have been insufficiently studied. Objective: The aim of this paper was the assessment of rational choice of the anaesthesiological services based on the analysis of the scope, distribution, trend and cost. Methods: The costs of anaesthesiological services were counted based on "unit" prices from the Republic Health Insurance Fund. Data were analysed by methods of descriptive statistics and statistical significance was tested by Student's t-test and χ2-test. Results The number of general anaesthesia was higher and average time of general anaesthesia was shorter, without statistical significance (t-test, p=0.436) during 2006 compared to the previous year. Local anaesthesia was significantly higher (χ2-test, p=0.001) in relation to planned operation in emergency surgery. The analysis of total anaesthesiological procedures revealed that a number of procedures significantly increased in ENT and MFH surgery, and ophthalmology, while some reduction was observed in general surgery, orthopaedics and trauma surgery and cardiovascular surgery (χ2-test, p=0.000). The number of analgesia was higher than other procedures (χ2-test, p=0.000). The structure of the cost was 24% in neurosurgery, 16% in digestive (general) surgery,14% in gynaecology and obstetrics,13% in cardiovascular surgery and 9% in emergency room. Anaesthesiological services costs were the highest in neurosurgery, due to the length anaesthesia, and digestive surgery due to the total number of general anaesthesia performed. Conclusion: It is important to implement pharmacoeconomic studies in all departments, and to separate the anaesthesia services for emergency and planned operations. Disproportions between the number of anaesthesia, surgery interventions and the number of patients in surgical departments gives reason to design relation database.