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Physicians' Attitudes About Prescribing and Knowledge of the Costs of Common Medications
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I read with interest the article by Reichert et al.1
The article is relevant and timely. In India, it is much more important as
our people are poor and they have to pay a large sum of their salary and/or
savings for even a single episode of sickness.
It is really a matter of concern to know that 80% of physicians are
unaware of the cost of the drugs.
In a study conducted in our hospital,2
we surveyed doctors and nurses regarding the cost of 15 commonly used items
(drugs [ranitidine, diclofenac, nifedipine, etc], disposables, and investigations
[electrocardiogram, x-ray examination, blood glucose estimation, etc]). Cost
estimates that fell within 20% of the correct prices were considered acceptable;
41% of the responses were incorrect (24% were overestimated and 17% were underestimated).
The doctors underestimated costs more frequently than the nurses.
Both underestimates and overestimates affect health care service. The
chances of . . . [Full Text of this Article]
RELATED ARTICLE
Physicians' Attitudes About Prescribing and Knowledge of the Costs of Common Medications
Steven Reichert, Todd Simon, and Ethan A. Halm
Arch Intern Med. 2000;160(18):2799-2803.
ABSTRACT
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