Actually we think these are all costs. To clarify a bit: we are operating as a social enterprise. The prices mentioned here would be what the hospital/NGO/government pays. Implementation is done with local staff which is quite affordable, after implementation everything is done by hospital staff. There is only limited need for support and maintenance which is all done by local teams which keeps costs low. Because (assuming we will reach sufficient volume) there are margins on the product and services this will ultimately pay for all international staff including mine.
Hospital staff time/costs goes down after the intervention, because the system automates repetitive tasks. Moreover we see a 10% shorter admission time, which will also have a positive impact on workload.
Soon we will publish more results showing that both costs for the health system and the patient will go down after the intervention. Based on what we see so far it is even very likely that our intervention is net cost saving over time.
We didn’t include that in this analysis because we did not yet have the results and it again complicates it further.
There are different philosophies here of course, but from my perspectives hospital staff time required to set everything up (including training etc), and international staff time, should be treated as costs, while hospital workload improvements and improved hospital or patient costs should be treated as benefits. Among other things, that is because the benefits are somewhat speculative while the costs are more certain.
Sorry for a delayed response. But indeed you are right abou this. However, the costs at the hospital staff for availing staff is actually very low. Typically it is 20-30 people for 1 day, the costs are negligible in relation to the 10 year total costs. Moreover in-service training is part and parcel of every nurses job and part of the hospitals responsibilities. That is why we have not counted it so far.
In the coming months we expect to have a proper assessment of the impact on workload and costs and can more clearly describe it as a benefit. Initial results from one hospital indicate that IMPALA is leading to a significant cost-reduction. Will keep you posted about developments.
Hi Ian (and John),
Actually we think these are all costs. To clarify a bit: we are operating as a social enterprise. The prices mentioned here would be what the hospital/NGO/government pays. Implementation is done with local staff which is quite affordable, after implementation everything is done by hospital staff. There is only limited need for support and maintenance which is all done by local teams which keeps costs low. Because (assuming we will reach sufficient volume) there are margins on the product and services this will ultimately pay for all international staff including mine.
Hospital staff time/costs goes down after the intervention, because the system automates repetitive tasks. Moreover we see a 10% shorter admission time, which will also have a positive impact on workload.
Soon we will publish more results showing that both costs for the health system and the patient will go down after the intervention. Based on what we see so far it is even very likely that our intervention is net cost saving over time.
We didn’t include that in this analysis because we did not yet have the results and it again complicates it further.
There are different philosophies here of course, but from my perspectives hospital staff time required to set everything up (including training etc), and international staff time, should be treated as costs, while hospital workload improvements and improved hospital or patient costs should be treated as benefits. Among other things, that is because the benefits are somewhat speculative while the costs are more certain.
Hi Ian,
Sorry for a delayed response. But indeed you are right abou this. However, the costs at the hospital staff for availing staff is actually very low. Typically it is 20-30 people for 1 day, the costs are negligible in relation to the 10 year total costs. Moreover in-service training is part and parcel of every nurses job and part of the hospitals responsibilities. That is why we have not counted it so far.
In the coming months we expect to have a proper assessment of the impact on workload and costs and can more clearly describe it as a benefit. Initial results from one hospital indicate that IMPALA is leading to a significant cost-reduction. Will keep you posted about developments.