Heterogeneidade dos preços das compras públicas hospitalares e seus fatores associados

Abstract

The proper functioning of any hospital depends fundamentally on the availability of a balanced stock, considering the needs of supplies, the expiration dates and the costs of storage of the same. In the case of public hospitals, this is even more important due to the delay in purchasing processes and the variation in prices obtained, in addition to the scarcity of financial resources for the purchase of these items. The amount of available resources is decisive for the number of patients who can be seen at a given institution. Thus, the present study aimed to analyze the existence of associations between the variation in prices of public hospital purchases and the characteristics of suppliers and purchasing hospitals. The survey took into account the procurement processes approved in 2018 for a group of inputs used in procedures of different levels of complexity. For this purpose, the correspondence analysis method was used, as it allows a study of the associations between all variables simultaneously, whether they are categorical, nominal or quantitative, while also presenting the result clearly through graphic elements. Subsequently, an analysis was performed using multivariate linear regression, as it provides the construction of a model that presents the relationships between the variables simultaneously, isolating the effect of each one on the variable of interest. The main results attest to different behaviors in relation to the implication of the quantity demanded on price, which vary according to the level of differentiation and complexity of the inputs. The concentration of suppliers and hospitals in certain regions influences the level of competition observed in the purchasing processes, which consequently affects the price. Both the size of hospitals and the size of suppliers were associated with price variation, since the time of existence of the supplier was not correlated. Finally, the importance of the electronic trading method in reaching lower prices is also highlighted, especially in the case of items with less differentiation.