Explicit and implicit influences on economic reasoning of health professionals after the global crisis 2008/2009: Challenges or keys in the recovery of health systems in the forthcoming global crisis?

Abstract

Introduction: Due to the global crisis of 2008/2009, health professionals have become aware of the lack of resources in the health system when they were forced to allocate resources themselves during their daily work. However, it remains poorly researched how the global crisis accompanied by cost containment is reflected in the economic reasoning of health professionals. Aim : The aim of this study was to identify the dimensions of economic reasoning of health professionals who are subject to implicit influences. Methods: The academic study included a random sample of health professionals in the institutions of the Republic of Serbia, who voluntarily agreed to fill healthcare professionals' economic reasoning questionnaire with nine items (HPER-9) which contains seven dimensions: the negligence of the cost of quality by the administration and financier; the consideration of the market price and healthcare benefit; market orientation considering patient's requests the recognition of inadequate resource allocations by non-medical administrative authority; the attitude about redirecting the profit from state to private healthcare sector; the recognition of the unjustified spending by the healthcare professionals, and the physician / patient relationship. Respondents were divided into two groups according to the time of the survey. The first group of respondents was surveyed before the introduction of restrictive measures in the health system of the Republic of Serbia. The second group of respondents was surveyed after the implementation of restrictive measures due to the economic crisis. Results: Compared to the period before the introduction of economic restrictions, after their introduction, the score of the consideration of the market price and healthcare benefit as well as score of the physician / patient relationship remained unchanged, while scores of other dimensions have deteriorated. Conclusions: The negligence of quality costs of non-medical administrations, unjustified spending by healthcare professionals, the attitude about redirecting the profit from state to private healthcare sector but also the behavior of non-medical administrations, are important dimensions of economic judgment and behavior of health professionals under 934