Dubai has long been one of the best destinations to live, work and travel. The reasons that can be attributed to this popularity are numerous, but the most prominent one may be the distinguishing advantages offered by this middle-eastern city which many of them are rarely found in other places in the world. UAE government has done its best in order for residents to live a happy and convenient life by setting new rules or changing some of them for the better. One of the recent changes that were made in an effort to bring comfort for the residents was that patients in Dubai hospitals will be soon able to pay for “bundled “ treatments instead of paying for medication and other services separately.
According to the recent report of Khaleej Times website, with the start of September, patients no longer have to pay for the services offered in Dubai hospitals separately, as hospitals in Dubai will adopt the International Refined Diagnostic Related Groups for inpatient hospital payments. Given to what the Dubai Health Authority(DHA) has said, the objective of this important step is to ensure the sustainability of Dubai health system which absolutely has a profound influence on the well-being of people. Another goal is improving the efficiency and quality of this system even better than before.
Saleh Al Hashimi, CEO of the DHA’s Dubai Health Insurance Corporation ( DHIC), has told Khaleej Times in an exclusive interview that several services will be combined into one for each inpatient stay. For example, if a doctor is not satisfied with an X-ray, and the doctor requests it, again and again, the patients will pay for only one.
The point that should be considered is that each patient hospital stay will be assigned to just one DRG being based on some factors such as age, sex, diagnosis, procedures provided for the patient.
In calculating the expenses, this system uses different parameters in order to give each patient-specific payments. According to what Al Hashimi has told Khaleej Times, the most significant point to bear in mind is that the price is fixed meaning the price does not depend on the days of staying in the hospital whether the patient stays 2 or 20 days.
So far, what has been discussed was only a brief explanation about this useful system that UAE is going to use. This system is associated with enormous benefits that will truly bring convenience and comfort for people of the UAE. One of them is that the system will make hospitals more efficient, as patients do not have to stay long in hospitals. Besides, patients can experience recovery at home and hospital beds can be used again. Also, as technology is widely used in this system, treatments will be more accurate.
*writer : Maral Aryanpour
