Hospitals now required to reveal prescription rates
Since the South Korean government began to publicize statistics on hospitals’ rates of prescribing antibiotics, the use of such medicines has sharply decreased. According to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Health & Welfare and the Health Insurance Review Agency (HIRA) on 503 doctors and 1,003 adults, about 32.6 percent of doctors have decreased their rate of antibiotics prescription after the government measure took effect in February 2006. Hospitals and clinics that prescribed antibiotics to more than 60 percent of patients during the second half of 2005, before enforcement of the measure, prescribed these medicines 17.6 percentage points less on average during the second half of last year, after the measure went into effect. Those institutions whose prescription rates were lower than 60 percent during the second half of 2005 saw their prescription rate drop by 3.9 percentage points under the new system. In addition, patient inquiries into antibiotics prescription rates have dropped by 17.8 percentage points over the same period, no doubt due to the fact that the information is now available on the HIRA Web site. In addition, since the government measure was put into place, a substantial number of patients are seeking out hospitals that are statistically less likely to prescribe them antibiotics as a treatment, for fear that these hospitals are using the drugs as a panacea in lieu of higher quality medical care. Nearly 21.5 percent of citizens surveyed said they knew about the related government measure, and a full 33.3 percent said they went to the HIRA’s Internet site and confirmed the antibiotics prescription rate of a hospital prior to visiting. About 30 persons said that they had changed hospitals after checking this information. The health ministry said the antibiotics reporting measure has shown positive effects for both hospitals and patients. It said it would expand its targets in order to evaluate the use of other medical services and would publish the results.Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
