Utilization of hospitals in RI below average

Utilization of hospitals in RI below average

JAKARTA (JP): A comparative study on hospitals in the Asia-
Pacific region released here on Tuesday indicated that the
utilization of hospitals in Indonesia was below average.

The hospital benchmarking was performed by management
consultancy Prasetio Utomo Strategic and Arthur Andersen, in
cooperation with the Ministry of Health. It showed that bed
occupancy rates in major Indonesian hospitals averaged 64.5
percent.

This was slightly below the mean figure for the region,
including Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines which was 65.8
percent, Darryl J. Hadaway of Arthur Andersen said.

The survey, detailing data gained from questionnaires sent to
managers of 14 private hospitals and 21 state hospitals
throughout the country from June to September, was presented in a
half-day seminar.

The survey did not include figures for the number of hospitals
surveyed in other countries.

Another finding was that patients in Indonesian hospitals
stayed for longer, an average of 6.44 days compared to the
regional average of 5.5 days.

Hadaway, the consultancy's Asia-Pacific health care director,
referred to poor management of inpatients as one factor
contributing to the lengthier stays.

Arthur Andersen's health care manager, Linus M. Setiadi, said
the analysis of the data had yet to be completed.

According to former president Soeharto's accountability speech
in March 1998, there were 641 state hospitals and 1,005 private
hospitals at the time for more than 200 million people across the
country.

Hadaway said the crisis was no excuse against improving health
services and facilities. Some improvements, he said, could be
done by hospital managers, especially cutting costs. "Indonesia
has a distinct advantage today on cost of labor...," the report
said. "This cost is likely to grow and more focus will be
required to manage impacts of changes here."

"Bigger hospitals are harder to manage," Hadaway said.

Umar Fahmi Achmadi, director of research and development at
the Ministry of Health, said the hospital bench making was a
"milestone" to motivate hospitals to improve service and
management quality.

The survey resulted in both a profile of the overall
performance of all 35 hospitals and a profile of each hospital.
The latter was confidential.

The consultants sent out questionnaires to 90 hospitals but
only 35 returned them. (01)