Quality and Cost of Healthcare: an Indian prespective an assessment of direct cost of quality across hospitals in India

Abstract

With recent advances in healthcare, quality has become a pertinent issue. As the demand for healthcare is rapidly rising with increasing population base and increasing levels of affordability, so is the demand for quality healthcare services. Superior quality of medical care is often associated with higher costs of hospitalization. This paper attempts to explore the relationship between quality of medical care services and the cost of hospitalization across hospitals in India. The findings have indicated a strong positive association between the cost of hospitalization and infrastructure, while a negative association was observed between staff to patient ratios. Though both these parameters affect and contribute to superior quality of care their impact of cost of hospitalization differs significantly.