The impact of global budgeting in Taiwan on inpatients with unexplained fever

Liu, Keh-Sen; Yu, Tsung-Fu; Wu, Hsing-Ju; Lin, Chun-Yi

A generalized linear model was used for analysis. Because drug costs were skewed to the right, data were converted to log base 10 for statistical analysis. GB had a significantly negative impact on drug costs (b = À0.25, P = .002). There was a significantly positive correlation between age and drug costs (b = 0.01, P = .003), but there was no significant correlation between gender, income state index or Charlson comorbidity index and drug costs (b = À0.01, P = .91; b = À0.02, P = .56; b = 0.11, P = .24, respectively). There were no significant differences in drug costs between regional hospitals and medical centers or local hospitals and medical centers (b = À0.11, P = .23; b = 0.08, P = .50, respectively). Compared with hospitals in Taipei city, there were no significant differences in drug costs among hospitals in northern Taiwan, central Taiwan, southern Taiwan, Kaoshiung city, or eastern Taiwan (b = 0.24, P = .08; b = 0.03, P = .79; b = 0.005, P = .97; b = 0.01, P = .94; b = À0.31, P = .08, respectively) ( Table 4 ).