Peru’s postabortion care (PAC) program is conducted by the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) Maternal and Perinatal Program with the technical assistance of Pathfinder International. This presentation will discuss how a reduction in the cost of treating post-abortion patients was achieved by a pilot project incorporating outpatient services into the Integrated Post-abortion Care Program in 21 MOH public sector hospitals.
Hospitals spend large amounts of money on the emergency treatment of incomplete abortion, which requires a minimum hospitalization of one day. At present, the PAC Program is considering the provision of outpatient services for the treatment of incomplete abortions without complications, which represent approximately 90 percent of the incomplete abortion cases treated in public sector hospitals. The introduction of manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) for the treatment of incomplete abortion can reduce the length of stay at the hospital to approximately three to four hours.
In order to measure this cost variation, the costs that a postabortion patient paid for emergency inpatient treatment were measured at the beginning of program activities. The costs for inpatient and outpatient treatment of incomplete abortion for both the patient and the hospital were then compared. The study considered the existing differences between the hospitals located in the city of Lima and those from the Andean and jungle regions.
Learning Objectives: 1. Evaluate the reduction in costs to both hospitals and postabortion patients achieved by introducing outpatient MVA treatment of incomplete abortion
Keywords: Post-Abortion Care, Cost Issues
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.