Willingness to pay to assess patient preferences for therapy in a Canadian setting

BACKGROUND: Adult outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy (OPAT) programs have been reported in the literature for over 20 years, however there are no published reports quantifying preference for treatment location of patients referred to an OPAT program. The purpose of this study was to elicit treatment location preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) from patients referred to an OPAT program. METHODS: A multidisciplinary, single centre, prospective study at a 1000-bed Canadian adult tertiary care teaching hospital. This study involved a WTP questionnaire that was administered over a 9-month study period. Eligible and consenting patients referred to the OPAT program were asked to state their preference for treatment location and WTP for a hypothetical treatment scenario involving intravenous antibiotic therapy. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed to determine predictors of WTP. RESULTS: Of 131 eligible patients, 91 completed the WTP questionnaire. The majority of participants were males, married, in their sixth decade of life and had a secondary school education or greater. The majority of participants were retired or they were employed with annual household incomes less than $60,000. Osteomyelitis was the most common type of infection for which parenteral therapy was required. Of those 87 patients who indicated a preference, 77 (89%) patients preferred treatment at home, 10 (11%) patients preferred treatment in hospital. Seventy-one (82%) of these patients provided interpretable WTP responses. Of these 71 patients, 64 preferred treatment at home with a median WTP of $490 CDN (mean $949, range $20 to $6250) and 7 preferred treatment in the hospital with a median WTP of $500 CDN (mean $1123, range $10 to $3000). Tests for differences in means and medians revealed no differences between WTP values between the treatment locations. The total WTP for the seven patients who preferred hospital treatment was $7,859 versus $60,712 for the 64 patients who preferred home treatment. Income and treatment location preference were independent predictors of WTP. CONCLUSION: This study reveals that treatment at home is preferred by adult inpatients receiving intravenous antibiotic therapy that are referred to our OPAT program. Income and treatment location appear to be independently associated with their willingness to pay.