A Letter on “Induced Demand after Implementing the Health Reform Plan in Selected Emergency Departments Affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences: a Cross-Sectional Study”

Abstract

Dear Editor in Chief

Advanced Journal of Emergency Medicine

I am writing you to point to an error in the article written by Shahverdi et al. entitled "Induced Demand after Implementing the Health Reform Plan in Selected Emergency Departments Affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences: a Cross-Sectional Study", which was published in your Journal.

Variables have been proposed to increase the chance of induced demand on both patient and supplier (physicians, service providers and etc.) parts. For example, on the supply-side: "physicians' income, physician/population ratio, price of services, payment methods, consultation time per visit or service, type and size of hospital, and etc." and on the demand-side "patients' insurance coverage and etc.". The study aimed to assess the induced demand after implementing the health reform plan (HRP) in the selected emergency departments, but the findings focus on calculating the percentage of changes in services provided before and after HRP; and it has not been shown that the studied factors have led to induced demand. So, the calculated increases might be due to uncertainty. Furthermore, based on the statistics presented in table1, there is an increase of about 65% in radiographic images, from 0.02 (in 2012-13) to 0.33 (in 2015-2016) image/person, and the mean difference is 0.13. It seems that, there is a miscalculation. The mean difference should be 0.013, and so the increased amount will be 0.033.