Basic study of rationing in healthcare

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25670246
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Medical sociology
• Research Institution: Okayama University
• Principal Investigator: SAITO Shinya 岡山大学, 保健学研究科, 教授 (10335599)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): SHIMOZUMA Kojiro 立命館大学, 生命科学部, 教授 (00248254) ; NOTO Shinichi 新潟医療福祉大学, 医療技術学部, 教授 (00339954) ; SHIROIWA Takeru 国立保健医療科学院, 研究員 (20583090) ; KODAMA Satoshi 京都大学, 文学研究科, 准教授 (80372366)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 医療資源配分 / ベッドサイド・ラショニング / 功利主義 / 平等主義 / 医療経済評価 / 費用対効果 / 医学的無益性 / ラショニング

Outline of Final Research Achievements

With respect to proper allocation method of medical resources (medical “rationing”), we conducted a large-sized survey on the general public and physicians with about 1,000 subjects in Japan. Generally, respondents seemed to feel that it is not so unfair to discriminate against patients who happen to have a high cost illness but prefer maximizing total number of saved patients. There was no difference between general public and physicians on the response. Under the contained healthcare budgets, physicians were often forced to consider whether it is ever proper to ration health care at the bedside (“bedside rationing”). Physician accepted to some extent the their control over the use of the medically beneficial service according to the cost-benefit consideration. Physicians made more utilitarian choice than expected.

Free Research Field

医療社会学