Evaluación económica de un programa de coordinación entre niveles para el manejo de pacientes crónicos complejos()

OBJECTIVE: The complex chronic patient program (CCP) of the Alt Penedès aims to improve the coordination of care. The objective was to evaluate the relationship between the costs associated with the program, and its results in the form of avoided admissions. DESIGN: Dost-effectiveness analysis from the perspective of the health System based on a before-after study. LOCATION: Alt Penedès. MAIN MEASUREMENTS: Health services utilisation (hospital [admissions, emergency visits, day-care hospital] and primary care visits). CCP Program results were compared with those prior to its implementation. The cost assigned to each resource corresponded to the hospital CatSalut's concert and ICS fees for primary care. A sensitivity analysis using boot strapping was performed. The intervention was considered cost-effective if the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) did not exceed the cost of admission (€ 1,742.01). RESULTS: 149 patients were included. Admissions dropped from 212 to 145. The ICER was € 1,416.3 (94,892.9 €/67). Sensitivity analysis showed that in 95% of cases the cost might vary between € 70,847.3 and € 121,882.5 and avoided admissions between 30 and 102. In 72.4% of the simulations the program was cost-effective. CONCLUSIONS: Sensitivity analysis showed that in most situations the PCC Program would be cost-effective, although in a percentage of cases the program could raise overall cost of care, despite always reducing the number of admissions.