Socio-economic impact on wound management—A pilot study at a Tertiary care Indian Hospital

Publication date: November–December 2013 Source:Wound Medicine, Volumes 2–3 Author(s): Maneesh Paul-Satyaseela , Althaf Chinna Hussain , Varghese Philip Although evaluating health is an important factor in managing the patients, there are other factors such as monthly income, number of dependents, cost of sickness, etc. all of which contribute to the socio-economic status of an individual, which impact the type of care sought and the type of healthcare facilities they go to. St. Martha's Hospital, Bangalore, India, is a tertiary hospital where patients come from mostly the middle and lower socio-economic population. The present two month pilot study was carried out to document the impact of socioeconomic status in the current practice of wound management at the hospital. We observed that the patients from lower documented economic status did not come for repeat visits for regular wound management unlike the comparatively better economic status patients. Since the actual cost to manage the wound was not significantly high, this non-managing tendency could be attributed to the other additional costs such as attendant, travel, incidentals, etc. Hence we conclude that there is clear impact of the socio-economic status of the patients in wound-management; and it is imperative to develop a right approach in wound management in order to reduce the economic burden on the patients while lowering the morbidity and mortality related to wounds.
Source: Wound Medicine - Category: Journals (General) Source Type: research