TITLE:
Hospital Outcome of Newborns with a Health Cheque System in Comparison to Those Without
AUTHORS:
Kamo Sélangaï Doka Hélène, Tony Nengom Jocelyn, Naiza Monono, Epée Jeannette, Mekone Nkwele Isabelle, Mbardjouk Aoudi Stephane, Sap Suzanne
KEYWORDS:
Outcome, Newborns, Health Cheque System
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Pediatrics,
Vol.13 No.2,
February
27,
2023
ABSTRACT: Introduction: The health cheque system is a prepayment mechanism aimed at reducing neonatal
and maternal mortality through improving the management of pregnant women. The pregnant
woman with the health cheque system that she pays at six thousand francs XAF (African
financial community) is covered free of charge for all the care provided by the
cheque system in the health facilities accredited to the health cheque project.
We did a study, with objective to determine the hospital outcome of newborns with a health cheque system (HCS) compared to those
without health cheque system. Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study with retrospective data collection
was carried out at the Ngaoundere Regional Hospital from January 2018 to September
2021. Results: During our study period, 2985 newborns were received. We saw an increase in admissions
over the years, particularly in the group of newborns with the health cheque system. Comparatively, the percentage of newborns cured in
the health cheque system group was 76.73% (n = 1643) versus 77.72% (n = 656) those in the non-health cheque system group. Those
who died were 8.96% (n = 192) in the health cheque system group compared to 6.27% (n = 53) in the non-health cheque system group. Conclusions and Recommendations: Most patients admitted to our service have the health cheque system. We notice
an increase in hospital attendance with the health cheque project. The outcome of the newborn under the health cheque system is
not different from that without health cheque system. The health cheque system was successful in getting the
larger number of newborns into care. The next step is to put strategies in place
to keep these patients in care for the duration of hospitalization.