Direct medical expenditure of acute viral encephalitis patients at health facilities of three North-West provinces: Son La, Dien Bien and Lao Cai, 2017-2018

Abstract

Recent years, acute viral encephalitis (AVE) hase tendency of moving from NorthEast to North-West provinces. In the region,
Sơn La, Đien Bien và Lao Cai provinces have recorded with highest number of AVE. Using the health facility-based costing, this study aims to estimate the direct medical expenditure and related factors of acute encephalitis patients at hospitals of three provinces: Son La, Dien Bien and Lao Cai, 2017-2019. All direct health service expenditure at the hospitals were analysed. The results indicated the average direct medical expenditure of each AVE patient is 8.010.875 VND. Of those, the patient has to pay 414.299 VND (5.2% of total expenditure), and remain was paid by government via health insurance. The median expenditure for an acute viral encephalitis is 5.844.793 VND. Two highest costing categories for acute viral encephalitis treatment at hospitals are medicine, blood, infusion (3.358.140 VND, 41.9%) and patient bed (2.349.215 VND, 29.3%). There are correlation between direct medical expenditure and patient’s age group and number of treatment days at hospitals.