Abstract
In April,1990, Inpatient Comprehensive Fee System (comprehensive fee in which everything from pharmaceutical, injection, and laboratory tests are included) was introduced.1,006 geriatric and convalescent hospitals (approximately 10% of all hospitals in country) have chosen the system. Although these hospitals are often observed as to give fewer and less variety of laboratry tests and pharmaceutical, the effect has not been confirmed. In the effort to grasp the actual effect, this study examined the change in the types and quantity of the pharmaceutical given, using pharmaceutical statistics from these hospitals. In addition, based on the questionnaires to the doctors of these hospitals as well as the survey of patients' ADL, elder care and pharmaceutical were reviewed for the future.
The study looked at the effect of the inpatie n t comprehensive fee system (partial fixed payment system) on the drug usage in elder care in four hospitals. In short, the findings differed considerably among the four.
Besides some exceptions, however, many hospital use less number and types of drugs since the fixed fee system was introduced. Especially, the number and types of those drugs for circulatory system (code 8), for digestive syetem (code 10), and for nerve system (code 11) have decreased significantly.
