| Literature DB >> 30933997 |
Sanjay Sarin1, Sophie Huddart2,3, Neeraj Raizada1, Debadutta Parija1, Aakshi Kalra1, Raghuram Rao4, Virender Singh Salhotra4, Sunil D Khaparde4, Catharina Boehme5, Claudia M Denkinger5, Hojoon Sohn6.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Outreach and promotion programs are essential to ensuring uptake of new public health interventions and guidelines. We assessed the costs and operation dynamics of outreach and promotion efforts for up front Xpert MTB/RIF (Xpert) testing for pediatric presumptive tuberculosis (TB) patients in four major Indian cities.Entities:
Mesh:
Year: 2019 PMID: 30933997 PMCID: PMC6443160 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0214675
Source DB: PubMed Journal: PLoS One ISSN: 1932-6203 Impact factor: 3.240
Fig 1Reference Xpert per test costs for different testing workloads (batch size) categorized by type of resource inputs (New Delhi Tuberculosis Centre).
Overhead includes electricity, gas, water, cleaning services etc. as well as staff involved in running the laboratories who were not employed by the FIND/RNTCP pediatric Xpert implementation project. Building space includes rent for rooms used for Xpert testing. Equipment includes the Xpert machine and other lab equipment. Staff includes wages for lab and managerial staff. Regents and chemicals consists of Xpert cartridge costs. Consumables include lab gloves and other personal protective equipment.
Total per-test unit costs during the experiment, weighted to account for actual different unit costs by workloads, and costs associated with overtime work and laboratory operations to meet same-day testing.
| City | Total testing costs | Weighted avg. per-test cost | Total overtime days (%) | Workweek overtime days (%) | Sunday overtime days (%) | Overtime testing costs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Delhi | $342,115.10 | $14.71 | 179 (25.4%) | 173 (21.1%) | 6 | $47,440.38 ($769.14) |
| Kolkata | $147,790.70 | $17.81 | 37 (5.3%) | 28 | 9 | $4,565.22 |
| Hyderabad | $243,347.80 | $16.08 | 114 (16.2%) | 70 | 44 | $20,228.40 ($403.36) |
| Chennai | $168,121.90 | $17.68 | 29 (4.1%) | 29 | 0 | $5,007.55 |
Fig 2Quarterly workload data by city.
Black indicates quarterly workload and red indicates quarterly testing capacity based on standard operating hours. Values in parentheses are the average workload-weighted Xpert per-test unit costs.
Summary of outreach efforts and costs by city.
| City | Types of outreach activity | Cost Summary | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phone call | 1-on-1 Meeting | CME | |||||||
| $0.16 ($0.12, $0.20) | $7.14 ($5.92, $9.23) | $7.88 ($6.03, $9.86) | Avg. total cost/Qtr. | Overall Avg. Referral Cost/ | |||||
| Avg. #/ Quarter | Avg. Cost/ | Avg. #/ Quarter | Avg. Cost/ Quarter | # of CMEs/ Quarter | Avg. # of Attendees | Avg. Cost/ Quarter | |||
| 145.5 | $23.28 ($17.46, $29.10) | 110.7 | $790.68 | 0.57 | 72 | $323.40 | $1,137.36 | $0.69 | |
| 31.8 | $5.09 | 128.1 | $914.78 | 1.05 | 54 | $446.80 | $1,366.67 | $2.11 | |
| 132.9 | $21.26 ($15.95, $26.58) | 199.5 | $1,424.43 ($1,055.36, $1,841.39) | 1.38 | 38 | $413.23 | $1,858.92 | $2.55 | |
| 108 | $17.28 ($12.96, $21.60) | 98.1 | $700.43 | 0.81 | 66 | $421.26 | $1,138.97 | $0.63 | |
Average number of referrals per quarter ranged from 825 to 2065 across the four cities. Overall average referral cost per patient is the average of the per quarter per patient referral costs. Length of recordkeeping for outreach activities varies. Monthly averages were used to estimate outreach spending for the course of the experiment. Values in parenthesis indicate low and high estimates. Minor discrepancies between cost breakdown and activity sums are due to rounding.
§ Phone call cost includes $0.13 staff costs and $0.02 outreach.
◊ Meeting costs include $3.23 staff costs, $2.99 transport costs and $0.93 overhead costs.
& Workshop costs per attendee include $0.77 staff costs, $6.08 misc. costs including transport and $1.03 overhead costs.
Fig 3Trends in outreach spending and number of successful patient referral for Xpert testing.
Fig 3A represents the trend of outreach spending cost per patient (solid line) referred plotted against the total number of patients referred (dotted line). Fig 3B plots the combined total outreach spending (solid line) against the number of patients referred (dotted line) for each quarter of the study period. Blue arrows indicate quarters where at least one CME was conducted.