Impact of free newborn care service package on out of pocket expenditure‐evidence from a multicentric study in Nepal

Abstract Background Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) aspires to improve universal health coverage through reduction of Out of Pocket Expenditure (OOPE) and improving the quality of care. In the last two decades, there have been several efforts to reduce the OOPE for maternal and newborn care. In this paper, we evaluate the change in the OOPE for treatment of sick newborn at hospital before and after implementation of a free newborn care (FNC) program in hospitals of Nepal. Methods Ministry of Health and Population implemented a free newborn care program which reimbursed the cost of treatment for all sick newborns admitted in public hospitals in Nepal from November 2017. We conducted this pre-post quasi-experimental study with four months of pre-implementation and 12 months of post-implementation of the program in 12 hospitals of Nepal. Logistic regression analysis was conducted for categorical variables and Mann-Whitney test was applied for continuous variables to determine statistically significant differences between pre- and post- intervention period. Results A total of 353 sick newborns were admitted into these hospitals before implementation of the FNC program while 1122 sick newborns were admitted after the implementation. Before implementation, 17 % of mothers paid for sick newborn care while after implementation 15.3 % mothers (p-value = 0.59) paid for care. The OOPE for treatment of sick newborn at hospital before implementation was Mean ± SD: US dollar 14.3 + 12.1 and after implementation was Mean ± SD: USD 13.0 ± 9.6 (p-value = 0.71). There were no significant differences in neonatal morbidity after the implementation of the FNC program. The stay in a hospital bed (in days) decreased after the implementation of FNC program (p-value < 0.001) while the cost for medicine increased (p-value = 0.02). The duration of hospital stay (in days) of sick newborns significantly decreased for Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) (p-value = 0.04) and neonatal sepsis (p-value < 0.001) after the FNC program was implemented. Conclusions We found no change in the OOPE for sick newborn care following implementation of the FNC Program. There is a need to revisit the FNC program by the type of morbidity and duration of stay. Further studies will be required to explore the health system adequacy to implement such programs in hospitals of Nepal. Trial registration ISRCTN- 30829654, Registered on May 02, 2017.

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Impact of Free Newborn Care Service package on Out of Pocket Expenditure-Evidence from a multicentric study in Nepal.

10.21203/rs.3.rs-29189/v2 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Avinash K Sunny ◽

Omkar Basnet ◽

Ankit Acharya ◽

Prajwal Paudel ◽

Mats Målqvist ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Care Service ◽

Newborn Care ◽

Public Hospitals ◽

Categorical Variables ◽

P Value ◽

Continuous Variables ◽

Health Coverage ◽

Multicentric Study ◽

Sick Newborn ◽

The Cost

Abstract Background: Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) aspires to improve universal health coverage through reduction of Out of Pocket Expenditure (OOPE) and improving the quality of care. In the last two decades, there have been several efforts to reduce the OOPE for maternal and newborn care. In this paper, we evaluate the change in the OOPE for treatment of sick newborn at hospital before and after implementation of a free newborn care (FNC) program in hospitals of Nepal. Methods: Ministry of Health and Population implemented a free newborn care program which reimbursed the cost of treatment for all sick newborns admitted in public hospitals in Nepal from November 2017. We conducted this pre-post quasi-experimental study with four months of pre-implementation and 12 months of post-implementation of the program in 12 hospitals of Nepal. Logistic regression analysis was conducted for categorical variables and Mann-Whitney test was applied for continuous variables to determine statistically significant differences between pre- and post- intervention period. Results: A total of 353 sick newborns were admitted into these hospitals before implementation of the FNC program while 1122 sick newborns were admitted after the implementation. Before implementation, 17% of mothers paid for sick newborn care while after implementation 15.3% mothers (p-value=0.59) paid for care. The OOPE for treatment of sick newborn at hospital before implementation was Mean±SD: US dollar 14.3+12.1 and after implementation was Mean±SD: USD 13.0±9.6 (p-value=0.71). There were no significant differences in neonatal morbidity after the implementation of the FNC program. The stay in a hospital bed (in days) decreased after the implementation of FNC program (p-value<0.001) while the cost for medicine increased (p-value=0.02). The duration of hospital stay (in days) of sick newborns significantly decreased for Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) (p-value=0.04) and neonatal sepsis (p-value<0.001) after the FNC program was implemented.Conclusion: We found no change in the OOPE for sick newborn care following implementation of the FNC Program. There is a need to revisit the FNC program by the type of morbidity and duration of stay. Further studies will be required to explore the health system adequacy to implement such programs in hospitals of Nepal.

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Impact of Free Newborn Care Service package on Out of Pocket Expenditure-Evidence from a multicentric study in Nepal.

10.21203/rs.3.rs-29189/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Avinash K Sunny ◽

Omkar Basnet ◽

Ankit Acharya ◽

Prajwal Paudel ◽

Mats Målqvist ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Care Service ◽

Newborn Care ◽

Categorical Variables ◽

P Value ◽

Continuous Variables ◽

Health Coverage ◽

Post Intervention ◽

Multicentric Study ◽

Sick Newborn ◽

The Cost

Abstract Background Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) aspires to improve universal health coverage through reduction of Out of Pocket Expenditure (OOPE) and improving the quality of care. In the last two decades, there have been several efforts to reduce the OOPE for maternal and newborn care. In this paper, we evaluate the change in the OOPE for treatment of sick newborn at hospital before and after implementation of a free newborn care (FNC) program in hospitals of Nepal. Methods Ministry of Health and Population implemented a free newborn care program which reimbursed the cost of treatment for sick newborns admitted in public referral hospitals in Nepal after October 2017. We conducted this study with three months of pre-implementation and 12 months of post-implementation of the program in 12 hospitals of Nepal. Logistic regression analysis was conducted for categorical variables and Mann-Whitney test was applied for continuous variables to determine statistically significant differences between pre- and post- intervention period. Results A total of 353 sick newborns were admitted into these hospitals before implementation of the FNC program while 1122 sick newborns were admitted after the implementation. Before implementation, 17% of mothers paid for sick newborn care while after implementation 15.3% mothers (p-value = 0.59) paid for care. The OOPE for treatment of sick newborn at hospital before implementation was Mean ± SD: US dollar 14.3 + 12.1 and after implementation was Mean ± SD: USD 13.0 ± 9.6 (p-value = 0.71). There were no significant differences in neonatal morbidity after the implementation of the FNC program. The stay in a hospital bed (in days) decreased after the implementation of FNC program (p-value < 0.001) while the cost for medicine increased (p-value = 0.02). The duration of hospital stay (in days) of sick newborns significantly decreased for Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) (p-value = 0.04) and neonatal sepsis (p-value < 0.001) after the FNC program was implemented. Conclusion We found no change in the OOPE for sick newborn care following implementation of the FNC Program. There is a need to revisit the FNC program by the type of morbidity and duration of stay. Further studies will be required to explore the health system adequacy to implement such a financing strategy in hospitals of Nepal.

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Impact of Free Newborn Care Service package on Out of Pocket Expenditure-Evidence from a multicentric study in Nepal.

10.21203/rs.3.rs-29189/v3 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Avinash K Sunny ◽

Omkar Basnet ◽

Ankit Acharya ◽

Prajwal Paudel ◽

Mats Målqvist ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Care Service ◽

Newborn Care ◽

Public Hospitals ◽

Categorical Variables ◽

P Value ◽

Continuous Variables ◽

Health Coverage ◽

Multicentric Study ◽

Sick Newborn ◽

The Cost

Abstract Background: Sustainable Development Goal ( SDG) aspires to improve universal health coverage through reduction of Out of Pocket Expenditure (OOPE) and improving the quality of care. In the last two decades, there have been several efforts to reduce the OOPE for maternal and newborn care. In this paper, we evaluate the change in the OOPE for treatment of sick newborn at hospital before and after implementation of a free newborn care (FNC) program in hospitals of Nepal. Methods: Ministry of Health and Population implemented a free newborn care program which reimbursed the cost of treatment for all sick newborns admitted in public hospitals in Nepal from November 2017. We conducted this pre-post quasi-experimental study with four months of pre-implementation and 12 months of post-implementation of the program in 12 hospitals of Nepal. Logistic regression analysis was conducted for categorical variables and Mann-Whitney test was applied for continuous variables to determine statistically significant differences between pre- and post- intervention period. Results: A total of 353 sick newborns were admitted into these hospitals before implementation of the FNC program while 1122 sick newborns were admitted after the implementation. Before implementation, 17% of mothers paid for sick newborn care while after implementation 15.3% mothers (p-value=0.59) paid for care. The OOPE for treatment of sick newborn at hospital before implementation was Mean±SD: US dollar 14.3+12.1 and after implementation was Mean±SD: USD 13.0±9.6 (p-value=0.71). There were no significant differences in neonatal morbidity after the implementation of the FNC program. The stay in a hospital bed (in days) decreased after the implementation of FNC program (p-value<0.001) while the cost for medicine increased (p-value=0.02). The duration of hospital stay (in days) of sick newborns significantly decreased for Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) (p-value=0.04) and neonatal sepsis (p-value<0.001) after the FNC program was implemented. Conclusion: We found no change in the OOPE for sick newborn care following implementation of the FNC Program. There is a need to revisit the FNC program by the type of morbidity and duration of stay. Further studies will be required to explore the health system adequacy to implement such programs in hospitals of Nepal.

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Assessment of Availability and Quality of Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care Service in Southwestern Oromia, Ethiopia, 2017

Advances in Public Health ◽

10.1155/2021/5566567 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2021 ◽

pp. 1-8

Author(s):

Dejene Edosa

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Health Care Providers ◽

Care Service ◽

Newborn Care ◽

Neonatal Morbidity ◽

Categorical Variables ◽

Care Providers ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Signal Functions

Background. Emergency obstetrics and newborn care (EmONC) is an important lifesaving function which can avert the death of women facing obstetrics-related complications. It is a cost-effective, significant intervention to decrease maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality in poor resource settings, including Ethiopia. Objective. The aim of this study was to assess the availability and quality of the EmONC services in southwestern Oromia, Ethiopia, in 2017. Methods. An institutional-based cross-sectional study was implemented from April to May 2017. Data were collected using checklists and questionnaires developed from different studies. Data were analyzed using EPI-info and exported to SPSS version 20 for further analysis. Each descriptive statistic was summarized using frequency, percentage, and tables for categorical variables. Results. Despite the fact that the overall coverage of fully functioning basic emergency obstetric and newborn care (BEmONC) facilities was greater than 5 per 500,000 people, nearly one-fourth (25.64%) provided less than expected signal functions, indicating that these facilities were nonfunctional. There were only 0.24 comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care (CEmONC) facilities per 500,000 people. The result of this study also revealed that the quality of EmONC facilities in all health-care settings was poor. Conclusion and Recommendation. There were gaps in performance signal functions as well as the availability and quality of EmONC in the study area. Availability and quality of EmONC necessitate improvements through enhancing health-care providers’ skills by training and mentoring as well as enabling facilities accessible for utilization of EmONC. Further research is needed to identify factors that could be barriers to the performance quality and coverage of EmONC services.

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Abstract 15297: A Bundled Approach to Improving Code Team Response for In-hospital Cardiac Arrest to Decrease Overcrowding and Improve Role Clarity and Leadership

Circulation ◽

10.1161/circ.130.suppl_2.15297 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 130 (suppl_2) ◽

Author(s):

Marion Leary ◽

Daniel N Holena ◽

Stacie Neefe ◽

Leah Davis ◽

Boris Tsypenyuk ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cardiac Arrest ◽

Role Ambiguity ◽

Intervention Group ◽

Median Number ◽

Secondary Outcome ◽

Categorical Variables ◽

Role Clarity ◽

Continuous Variables ◽

Post Intervention ◽

Hospital Cardiac Arrest

Background: Little is known about how non-technical factors such as inadequate role definition and overcrowding may impact in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) outcomes. Using a bundled intervention, we sought to decrease overcrowding while improving provider role ambiguity and leadership at IHCA events. Objective: To examine interventions targeted at decreasing overcrowding, improving role ambiguity and leadership during IHCA. Methods: As part of a performance improvement initiative, a multidisciplinary team implemented four countermeasures to improve IHCA code response: an MD/RN leadership dyad, assigned optimal team composition, scripted role definitions, and visual (stickers)/verbal (role-checks) cues. Between 4/2013-4/2014, the number and discipline of providers responding to ICHA events were recorded at each pulse check, and a 10-point Likert scale survey assessing communication and leadership was performed pre- and post-intervention. The primary outcome was the number of providers present after the role checks. Secondary outcome examined communication and leadership performance. Mann-Whitney test was used for continuous variables and chi-squared or Fischer’s exact test was used to compare categorical variables. Results: 20 pre-intervention and 34 post-intervention IHCA events were captured. During both periods, MDs and RNs comprised the majority of the total providers present (61%, 57%). The median number of MDs present in the post-intervention group was lower than in the pre-intervention group (4 (IQR 4-5) vs. 7 (IQR 5-9), p= 0.004), as was the number of total overall providers (14 (IQR 12-16) vs. 18 (IQR 14-22), p=0.04). The number of RNs did not differ post-intervention (data not shown). Survey results showed no significant differences in perceptions of communications or physician leadership post-intervention. However, the overwhelming majority of both the MD code leaders (90%) and primary nurses (97%) identified that there was a clear RN leader and rated the leadership provided by RN lead consistently high with a median score of 9 out of 10 possible points. Conclusions: Using an innovative bundle can decrease overcrowding and improve role ambiguity and leadership during non-ICU IHCA events.

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P567 Pharmacist-managed immunomodulator clinic in titration and monitoring of immunosuppressants in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Journal of Crohn s and Colitis ◽

10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjab076.688 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. S527-S527

Author(s):

V Ng ◽

T G Lim ◽

W C Ong ◽

S Y A Wong ◽

E Salazar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Inflammatory Bowel Disease ◽

Medication Adherence ◽

Side Effects ◽

Bowel Disease ◽

Care Service ◽

Severe Disease ◽

Categorical Variables ◽

Close Monitoring ◽

Continuous Variables ◽

Inflammatory Bowel

Abstract Background Immunomodulators (IMs) such as azathioprine are the cornerstone in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, they are associated with significant toxicity and requires close monitoring for side effects, which puts a stretch on our physician clinics. The pharmacist-run Immuno Clinic (IMC) was set up in 2016 to assist in the monitoring of stable patients and initial titration phase of IMs so that physicians are able to focus their time and energy on patients with more complex diseases. The objective of this study is to demonstrate that IMC is able to effectively and safely carry out its purpose for patient’s disease management, medication adherence and adverse events management, resulting in time and cost savings. Methods This is a retrospective study looking at IBD patients who attended IMC from Aug 2016 to July 2019. Patients’ demographics, disease control, medication adherence and adverse effects were obtained from the IMC database. Descriptive data were analyzed using frequency distribution for categorical variables. Continuous variables were expressed as median and interquartile range (IQR). Results A total of 73 patients were included. Thirty-six (49.3%) patients had CD, while 37 (50.7%) patients had UC. A total of 185 actions were executed over 173 IMC sessions, including dose adjustment (57), recommending additional medications (14), discontinuation or restarting IM (12), side effects detection (25), monitoring recommendations (10), non-adherence detection (39), referral to physician (23), and others (5). In 2 out of 173 visits (1.1%), severe disease flare requiring hospitalization was detected and referred back to the primary physician for inpatient admission. Thirty ADRs were detected (17.3 %) and managed promptly. There were 24 cases of non-adherence detected and counselled (13.9%). Out of 38 patients who were referred for titration of IM, 28 patients (73.7%) achieved the target dose of IM. Patient visits were largely independently managed by pharmacists (150 out of 173, 86.7%). Conclusion Implementation of pharmacist-led IMC is a safe and cost-effective alternative to conventional gastroenterology clinic for monitoring and titration of IMs, enabling physicians to focus on more complicated cases and thus improving access to the IBD ambulatory care service.

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Limitations and perceived delays for diagnosis and staging of lung cancer in Portugal: A nationwide survey analysis

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0252529 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (6) ◽

pp. e0252529

Author(s):

Fernando Barata ◽

Paula Fidalgo ◽

Sara Figueiredo ◽

Fernanda S. Tonin ◽

Filipa Duarte-Ramos

Keyword(s):

Lung Cancer ◽

Waiting Times ◽

Performance Status ◽

Nationwide Survey ◽

Tumor Burden ◽

Public Hospitals ◽

Categorical Variables ◽

Multidisciplinary Teams ◽

Continuous Variables ◽

Survey Analysis

Background We aimed to identify the perception of physicians on the limitations and delays for diagnosing, staging and treatment of lung cancer in Portugal. Methods Portuguese physicians were invited to participate an electronic survey (Feb-Apr-2020). Descriptive statistical analyses were performed, with categorical variables reported as absolute and relative frequencies, and continuous variables with non-normal distribution as median and interquartile range (IQR). The association between categorical variables was assessed through Pearson’s chi-square test. Mann-Whitney test was used to compare categorical and continuous variables (Stata v.15.0). Results Sixty-one physicians participated in the study (45 pulmonologists, 16 oncologists), with n = 26 exclusively assisting lung cancer patients. Most experts work in public hospitals (90.16%) in Lisbon (36.07%). During the last semester of 2019, responders performed a median of 85 (IQR 55–140) diagnoses of lung cancer. Factors preventing faster referral to the specialty included poor articulation between services (60.0%) and patients low economic/cultural level (44.26%). Obtaining National Drugs Authority authorization was one of the main reasons (75.41%) for delaying the begin of treatment. The cumulative lag-time from patients’ admission until treatment ranged from 42–61 days. Experts believe that the time to diagnosis could be optimized in around 11.05 days [IQR 9.61–12.50]. Most physicians (88.52%) started treatment before biomarkers results motivated by performance status deterioration (65.57%) or high tumor burden (52.46%). Clinicians exclusively assisting lung cancer cases reported fewer delays for obtaining authorization for biomarkers analysis (p = 0.023). Higher waiting times for surgery (p = 0.001), radiotherapy (p = 0.004), immunotherapy (p = 0.003) were reported by professionals from public hospitals. Conclusions Physicians believe that is possible to reduce delays in all stages of lung cancer diagnosis with further efforts from multidisciplinary teams and hospital administration.

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Evaluation of a rehabilitation program from the perspective of children with disabilities and their caregivers in Uruguay

Journal of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine ◽

10.3233/prm-190632 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-9

Author(s):

Cecilia Durán ◽

María del Carmen Abreu ◽

Juan J. Dapueto

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Outcome Measures ◽

Patient Reported Outcome Measures ◽

Patient Reported Outcome ◽

Categorical Variables ◽

Family Impact ◽

Continuous Variables ◽

Post Intervention ◽

Patient Reported

PURPOSE: The aim of the study was to evaluate the Assessment and Orientation Treatment Program for children and adolescents with disabilities treated at the Center Teletón Uruguay from the perspective of the patients and their parents based on several patient reported outcome measures: health related quality of life (HRQOL), treatment satisfaction, family impact, and emotional distress. METHODS: The sample consisted of all the 126 dyads of children/adolescents with ages ranging from 2 to 18 years and their primary caregivers who entered the program from April to October 2012. A set of instruments were filled out by children and parents before and six months after the program. T test for paired samples for continuous variables and McNemar's test for categorical variables were used to assess changes pre and post intervention. RESULTS: There was a high prevalence of depression and anxiety in the caregivers. In the second evaluation, improvements that were statistically significant only for the caregivers were observed in the HRQOL of children, adolescents and caregivers. CONCLUSIONS: The patient reported outcome measures used were effective in detecting changes in several areas of the quality of life of children observed by their caregivers and in their own quality of life after the intervention.

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Abstract 18: Improving Door-to-Needle Times with Target Stroke

Stroke ◽

10.1161/str.44.suppl_1.a18 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 44 (suppl_1) ◽

Author(s):

Ilana M Ruff ◽

Ali Syed ◽

Natalia Rost ◽

Joshua Goldstein ◽

Michael Lev ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Best Practices ◽

Stroke Care ◽

Step Function ◽

Categorical Variables ◽

Continuous Variables ◽

Acute Stroke Care ◽

Post Intervention ◽

Related Factors ◽

Stroke Registry ◽

Iv Tpa

Introduction: Nationally, fewer than 30% of IV tPA-treated patients are imaged within 25 minutes, or receive IV tPA within 60 minutes of ED arrival. In 2007, we implemented a new institutional acute stroke care model to include 10 best practices, all of which were later included in AHA’s Target Stroke program. We evaluated the effect of this strategy on timeliness of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) care. Methods: We analyzed median ED door-to-CT (DTCT) and door-to-needle (DTN) times in 4,477 AIS patients enrolled in our Get with the Guidelines Stroke registry from 2003-2011. Predictors of DTN ≤ 60 min (DTN60) were assessed using Chi-square for categorical variables and t-test for continuous variables. Results: An initial CT scan was performed in our ED in 58% of AIS patients, 289 of whom received IV tPA. Median DTCT times and DTN60 dropped significantly among tPA-treated patients after the intervention (Table 1, Chart 1). The percentage of patients with DTCT ≤ 25 min and DTN60 doubled post-intervention [12.6% vs. 28.1% and 35.0% vs. 70.0%, respectively, p <0.001]. Patients with DTN60 did not differ significantly in age, gender, race, co-morbidities, or NIHSS score as compared to those treated >60 min. Conclusion: Implementing the AHA Target Stroke best practices improved DTCT and DTN60 times for AIS patients, doubling the percent of patients meeting recommended targets. Only calendar year was independently associated with achieving DTN60, demonstrating a step function improvement after the guidelines were systematically applied. Therefore, changes in hospital-level, rather than patient-related factors are driving improvement.

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FilmArray® Meningoencephalitis Panel In the Diagnosis of Central Nervous System Infections: Stewardship And Cost Analysis in a Paediatric Hospital in Chile

10.21203/rs.3.rs-1097010/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mirta Acuña ◽

Dona Benadof ◽

Karla Yohannessen ◽

Yennybeth Leiva ◽

Pascal Clement

Keyword(s):

Central Nervous System ◽

Nervous System ◽

Public Hospitals ◽

Cns Infection ◽

Intervention Period ◽

Post Intervention ◽

Post Intervention Period ◽

Hospitalization Costs ◽

Aetiological Diagnosis ◽

The Cost

Abstract Background: Central nervous system (CNS) infection has been an ongoing concern in paediatrics. The FilmArray® Meningoencephalitis (FAME) panel has greater sensitivity in identifying the aetiology of CNS infections. This study’s objective was to compare the aetiological identification and hospitalization costs among patients with suspected CNS infection before and after the use of FAME.Methods: An analytical observational study was carried out using a retrospective cohort for the pre-intervention (pre-FAME use) period and a prospective cohort for the post-intervention (post-FAME use) period in children with suspected CNS infection.Results: A total of 409 CSF samples were analysed, 297 pre-intervention and 112 post-intervention. In the pre-intervention period, a total of 85.5% of patients required hospitalization, and in the post-intervention period 92.7% required hospitalization (p<0.05). The P50 of ICU days was significantly lower in the post-intervention period than it was in the pre-intervention period. The overall positivity was 9.4% and 26.8%, respectively (p< 0.001). At ages 6 months and below, we found an increase in overall positivity from 2.6% to 28.1%, along with an increased detection of viral agents, S. agalactiae, S. pneumoniae, and N. meningitidis. The use of this diagnostic technology saved between $2,916 and $12,240 USD in the cost of ICU bed-days. FAME use provided the opportunity for more accurate aetiological diagnosis of the infections and thus the provision of adequate appropriate treatment.Conclusions: The cost/benefit ratio between FAME cost and ICU -bed-day cost savings is favourable. Implementation of FAME in Chilean public hospitals saves public resources and improves the accuracy of aetiological diagnosis.

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