COST-ANALYSIS OF TRANSMURAL HOME CARE FOR TERMINAL CANCER-PATIENTS

The economic implications of home care service programmes for oncology patients remain unclear. This quasiexperimental study investigated th e costs of a transmural home care programme for terminal cancer patien ts and compared them to those of the standard care available. The prog ramme intended to optimize communication, cooperation and coordination between the intra- and extra- mural health care organizations (transm ural care). Complete sets of data could be retrieved for 57 of the 79 patients in the intervention group, and for 29 of the 37 patients in t he control group. Comparison of the intervention and control group rev ealed significantly lower pharmaceutical and rehospitalization costs i n the intervention group, whilst community nursing and home help costs were significantly higher. However, no significant difference could b e found for total health care costs between the groups. In view of thi s, and that the programme has proved to have significantly positive ef fects on both the patient's and direct caregiver's quality of life, th e installation of such programmes in every hospital with a multidiscip linary oncology unit is recommended. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.