A Comparative Analysis of Military and Civilian Health Care Delivery Systems.

Abstract

The present study proposes the use of the time a patient spends in a military hospital as a measure of the efficiency of that military hospital through comparison with lengths of stay in a civilian hospital. The same comparison is proposed as an indicator of how utilization patterns in the general populace may change if large-scale access to comprehensive prepaid health care is implemented. In addition an algorithm for determining the size of the population supported by a military hospital is developed. The study concludes that length of stay can be used as a measure of hospital efficiency. The study concludes that length of stay can be used as a measure of hospital efficiency. However, the results of a comparison with civilian hospital lengths of stay must be tempered by consideration of the uniqueness of the military population served. It is also concluded that the probable degree of increased utilization of inpatient care resulting from large scale access to low-cost health care is very small or even negative. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1973
Accession Number
AD0769438

Entities

People

  • James Larry Norton

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Algorithms
  • Delivery Of Health Care
  • Efficiency
  • Health Care
  • Health Care Facilities
  • Health Services
  • Hospitalizations
  • Hospitals
  • Military Hospitals

Fields of Study

  • Medicine
  • Political science

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Medical or Health Care Field.
  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies