Assessing the economic costs of obstetric evacuation in rural and remote First Nation and Inuit communities in Canada
First Nations and Inuit Health Branch guidelines require First Nations and Inuit birthing persons residing on reserve or in rural and remote areas in Canada to travel to urban centres at 36–38 weeks gestational age, to await labour and birth. We sought to determine the costs of obstetric evacuatio...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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Scholarship@Western
2023
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| Online Access: | https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/9973 https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/etd/article/12716/viewcontent/Radhaa_thesis.pdf |
| Summary: | First Nations and Inuit Health Branch guidelines require First Nations and Inuit birthing persons residing on reserve or in rural and remote areas in Canada to travel to urban centres at 36–38 weeks gestational age, to await labour and birth. We sought to determine the costs of obstetric evacuation. Our first study was a systematic review identifying obstetric evacuation costs in Canada. Medical evacuation costs, direct and indirect, ranged from $7,714 to $31,794 Canadian dollars. Our second study was a model-based analysis of the cost for fly-in First Nation communities in Ontario. The estimated average cost of obstetric evacuation was $38,551.72 Canadian dollars, comprised of $14,237.44, $8,540.28, $6,564.11, $5,973.01, $2,195.20, $647.92, and $393.76 representing lost productivity, escort, travel, hospitalization, accommodation, meals, and dependents, respectively. Future research could expand our model-based framework to estimate population-level obstetric evacuation costs and conduct economic evaluations of culturally appropriate obstetric services, such as Indigenous midwifery. |
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