PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to compare the costs and benefits of home nursing care services between public health centers (PHC) and private hospitals.
METHOD
Participants were 105 patients who had received home nursing care services from a private hospital or public health center. From a societal perspective, the researcher identified the costs and benefits of the services using performance data and calculated the net benefit and benefit/cost ratio.
RESULT
The net benefit of the home nursing care service based in the PHC was 165.9 million won and benefit/cost ratio was 2.0, while the net benefit of the home nursing care services by the private hospital was 141.1 million won and benefit/cost ratio was 1.7. Both types of programs were economically validated.
CONCLUSION
Home nursing care services were basically efficient as the results showed a positive net benefit. A cost-benefit analysis indicated that the PHC-based home nursing care services were more efficient than that of the private hospital. With limited human resources and management standards in public health centers, results suggest the need for a more systematic management of the home nursing care service to improve the health of this vulnerable community population.

Citations

• Systematic Review and Quality Assessment of Health Economic Evaluation Studies (2007–2019) Conducted in South Korea
  Sunghyun Yi, Jihyung Hong, Haemin Yoon, You-na Lim, Eun-Young Bae
  Applied Health Economics and Health Policy.2022; 20(6): 819.     CrossRef