DO PHYSICIANS KNOW THE COST OF TREATMENTS THEY PRESCRIBE AND TESTS THEY ORDER

Objective. To determine the among physicians regarding the cost of dia gnostic tests and commonly used drugs. Individuals and methods. An int erview was obtained with a representative sample of 164 physicians fro m a total of 338 (accuracy +/- 3.55), distributed in interns/residents (n:119) and staff members (n:45) from the divisions of Surgery (n:81) and Medicine (n:83) at Hospital Clinic i Provincial, Barcelona. The q uestionnaire included 15 questions, 10 regarding drugs and 5 diagnosti c tests, with 5 possible answers. An arbitrary scoring system was used (correct answer: 5 points; approximate; 3 points; mistake: 1 point) a nd the percentage of right answers (correct and approximate answers) w as also evaluated versus mistakes. The Student ''t'', test, the analys is of variance and the X(2) test were used to compare the results. Res ults. The overall score reached was 2.72 +/- 0.41. Differences between residents vs staff and medicine vs surgery were not significant. The score in questions regarding diagnostic tests was significantly higher than that obtained for drug cost among all group. The percentages of right answers (correct and approximate answers) were 58.8%-61.7% (drug s) and 58.3-60.8% (tests), with no differences among groups. Differenc es regarding year of residence were also not significant. Conclusions. The knowledge degree on costs of some drugs and diagnostic tests amon g physicians is deficient. It is necessary to find standards that cont ribute to increase the level of information regarding costs derived fr om the health care delivery process among health care professionals.