Evaluation of hospital manager's views on hospital based health technology assessment

The Health Technology Assessment (HTA) method, is one of the tools frequently applied in the decisions related to the acquisition of health technologies. The adaptation of HTA to hospitals is the Hospital Based Health Technology Assessment (HB-HTA) method. HTA method has been carried out at the since 2012 in Turkey. But, there is insufficient information on the use of HB-HTA in hospitals. Although the name was not known as HB-HTA in hospitals, several assessment models supporting the decision process are used when acquisition of a medical device or equipment. The aim of this study is to investigate how public and private hospitals benefit the HB-HTA method in the stage of acquiring medical device/equipment, what are the personal and institutional characteristics affecting the use of HB-HTA and how they affect it. In the study, the questionnaire, was developed as the data collection tool, a total of 186 managers from 33 hospitals, 24 of which were Ministry of Health and 9 private hospitals, were reached. The analysis reveals that the evaluation methods applied in the stage of acquiring a medical device/equipment in hospitals were similar to those used in HB-HTA methods and the dimensions of HB-HTA were taken into consideration. The multidisciplinary structure, which is one of the important features of the method is utilized in the assessments and preferred by the managers. It has been revealed that all the managers emphasizes various scales and dimensions of the method such as private hospitals to all dimensions of HB-HTA; branch hospitals to safety; teaching hospitals and all managers to clinical effectiveness; financial services managers and assistants to costs and economic evaluation as well as strategic and political aspects. In addition, HB-HTA method has been found to be affected positively by age variable. However, it has been observed that there is no systematic structure designed and deployed at the national level regarding the use and dissemination of HB-HTA. This study uncovers the current use of HB-HTA methods and applications in hospitals and shows that the development of HB-HTA method throughout the country should be supported at all levels of health system.