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Nursing homes are expensive. Confronted with population ageing, governments strive to protect older people against excessive out-of-pocket payments, while at the same time trying to limit public spending on care. This column discusses how the design of out-of-pocket payments for nursing home care can contribute to these goals, building on a study looking at a Dutch reform. A sound design should combine an incentive for efficient care use with protection against the accumulation of out-of-pocket payments over many years.

The share of older adults residing in a nursing home is much higher in the Netherlands and Denmark than in the US, while in the US, perhaps surprisingly, individuals are much more likely to be admitted to a nursing home. We explore reasons for the higher US admission rates and aim to understand to what extent these differences are due to (i) differences in the composition of the population aged 65+ or (ii) differences in LTC system features. We use data from HRS and SHARE merged to administrative data to compare total nursing home admission rates and long-term nursing home admission rates in The Netherlands (N = 1,800) and Denmark (N = 1,859), with comparable rates from the US (N = 6,553). We use decomposition techniques to quantify the differences in determinants of nursing home admissions. We find that elders in the US are more likely to be disabled, but even after adjusting for disability, they are more likely to be admitted to a nursing home. Because nearly half of these stays in the US are for fewer than 20 days, there is a shorter average length of stay; by contrast in the Netherlands and Denmark nursing home admissions are generally much longer term. These findings indicate that nursing home admissions are not solely determined by personal characteristics; also system and cultural differences are important reasons why nursing home use varies across countries.

Background In 2015, the Dutch government implemented a long-term care (LTC) reform primarily designed to promote older adults to age-in-place. Increased proportions of older adults living in the community might have resulted in more and longer acute hospitalisations. The aims of this study were to evaluate whether the Dutch 2015 LTC reform was associated with immediate and longitudinal increases in the monthly rate of acute clinical hospitalisation and monthly average hospital length of stay (LOS) in adults aged 65 years or older. Methods In this interrupted time series analysis of national hospital data (2009–18), we evaluated the association of the Dutch 2015 LTC reform with the monthly rate of acute clinical hospitalisation and monthly average LOS for older adults (aged ≥65 years). Patient-level episodic hospital data were provided by Dutch Hospital Data. Records were included that were defined as an acute clinical hospital admission for which a medical specialist decided treatment was necessary within 24 h. The analysis controlled for population growth (Dutch population data was provided by Statistics Netherlands) and seasonality, and calculated adjusted incident rate ratios (IRR). Findings Before the 2015 LTC reform, the rate of acute monthly hospitalisation was increasing (IRR 1·002 [95% CI 1·001–1·002]). A positive average reform effect was observed (1·116 [1·070–1·165]), accompanied by a negative change in trend (0·997 [0·996–0·998]) that resulted in a decreasing trend over the post-reform period (0·998 [0·998–0·999]). The pre-reform trend of LOS was decreasing (0·998 [0·997–0·998]), and the 2015 reform exhibited a positive change in trend (1·002 [1·002–1·003]) that resulted in a stabilisation of LOS in the post-reform period (0·999 [0·999–1·000]). Interpretation Our findings suggest that the increase in the rate of acute hospitalisation after the reform implement

Background Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) can highlight issues that remain unnoticed when using standard clinical quality indicators. However, estimations of the potential power of measuring PROMs and PREMs to identify unrecognised areas suitable for quality improvement are often limited by a lack of reliable real-world data. Here, we report on how the indicator set for PROMs and PREMs that was recently developed by the International Consortium for Health Outcome Measures can change perspectives on quality assessment in women receiving care for pregnancy and childbirth. Methods PROMs and PREMs were captured 6 months after childbirth via an online survey in a single academic maternity unit in the Netherlands between 2018 and 2019. Indicators of abnormality were scored using predefined cut-off values established by a national consensus group. We used regression analysis to identify associations between PROMs, PREMs and healthcare use, and further stratified data to explore the distribution of indicators among relevant patient subgroups. Results Of 2775 questionnaires, 645 were completed and linked to medical health records. Despite only 5% of women reporting overall dissatisfaction with care, suboptimal scores were often found; in birth experience for 32% of the population, and 42% who experienced painful sexual intercourse. Subgroup analysis further revealed associations with relevant indicators of quality of care; inadequate pain relief among women with preterm birth (OR 8.8), pain with sexual intercourse among women undergoing vaginal assisted delivery (OR 2.2) and women living in a deprived area had problematic birth experiences (coefficient -3.2). Conclusion Use of PROMs and PREMs in pregnancy and childbirth care provides new insights on quality of care, resulting in potentially actionable targets for improvement not normally identified with standard clinical quality indicators. Implementation strateg

The prevalence of multimorbidity among rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients is increasing and associated with worse outcomes. Therefore, management of multimorbid patients requires a multidisciplinary approach. However, healthcare systems consist of mono-disciplinary subsystems, which limits collaboration across subsystems. To study the importance of a multidisciplinary, integrated approach, associations between expenditures and multimorbidity are assessed in real-life data. Retrospective data on RA patients from a Dutch single-hospital are analyzed and compared to the Dutch RA population data. The Elixhauser index is used to measure the multimorbidity prevalence. Regression analyses were conducted to derive the relationship between multimorbidity, healthcare costs and self-reported quality of life (e.g. EQ-5D). When analyzing the impact of multimorbidity within RA patients in context of a single-hospital context, multimorbidity is only partially captured: 13% prevalence versus 24% of the Dutch population. Multimorbidity is associated with higher care expenditures. Depending on the type of multimorbidity, expenditures are €43-€5821 higher in a single-hospital and from €2259-€9648 in population data. Finally, medication use associated with chronic diseases and self-reported aspects of well-being are associated with similar increases in healthcare expenditures as multimorbidity based on hospital care. Within RA, a single-hospital approach underestimates the association between multimorbidity and healthcare expenditures as 43% of healthcare utilization and expenditures are missed. To overcome a single-provider perspective in healthcare and efficiently coordinate multimorbid patients, besides providing holistic care, professionals also need to use data providing comprehensive pictures of patients.

To improve the quality of nursing home care, reliable estimates of outcomes are essential. Obtaining such estimates requires optimal use of limited data, especially for small homes. We analyze the variation in mortality and hospital admissions across nursing homes in the Netherlands during the years 2010–2013. We use administrative data on all nursing home clients. We apply mixed-effects survival models, empirical Bayes estimation, and machine-learning techniques to optimally use the available longitudinal data. We find large differences in both outcomes across nursing homes, yet the estimates are surrounded by substantial uncertainty. We find no correlation between performance on mortality and avoidable hospital admissions, suggesting that these are related to different aspects of quality. Hence, caution is needed when evaluating the performance of individual nursing homes, especially when the number of outcome indicators is limited.

Background Hip fractures are costly and common in older adults, but there is limited understanding of how treatment patterns and outcomes might differ between countries. Methods We performed a retrospective serial cross-sectional cohort study of adults aged ≥66 years hospitalized with hip fracture between 2011 and 2018 in the US, Canada, England, the Netherlands, Taiwan, and Israel using population-representative administrative data. We examined mortality, hip fracture treatment approaches (total hip arthroplasty [THA], hemiarthroplasty [HA], internal fixation [IF], and nonoperative), and health system performance measures, including hospital length of stay (LOS), 30-day readmission rates, and time-to-surgery. Results The total number of hip fracture admissions between 2011 and 2018 ranged from 23,941 in Israel to 1,219,696 in the US. In 2018, 30-day mortality varied from 3% (16% at 1 year) in Taiwan to 10% (27%) in the Netherlands. With regards to processes of care, the proportion of hip fractures treated with HA (range 23%–45%) and THA (0.2%–10%) differed widely across countries. For example, in 2018, THA was used to treat approximately 9% of patients in England and Israel but less than 1% in Taiwan. Overall, IF was the most common surgery performed in all countries (40%–60% of patients). IF was used in approximately 60% of patients in the US and Israel, but only 40% in England. In 2018, rates of nonoperative management ranged from 5% of patients in Taiwan to nearly 10% in England. Mean hospital LOS in 2018 ranged from 6.4 days (US) to 18.7 days (England). The 30-day readmission rate in 2018 ranged from 8% (in Canada and the Netherlands) to nearly 18% in England. The mean days to surgery in 2018 ranged from 0.5 days (Israel) to 1.6 days (Canada). Conclusions We observed substantial between-country variation in mortality, surgical approaches, and health system performance measures. These findings underscore the need for further research

Societies face the challenge of providing appropriate arrangements for individuals who need living support due to their mental disorders. We estimate the effects of eligibility to the Dutch supported housing program (Beschermd Wonen), which offers a structured living environment in the community as an intermediate alternative to independent housing and inpatient care. For this, we use exogenous variation in eligibility based on conditionally random assignment of applications to assessors, and the universe of applications to supported housing in the Netherlands, linked to rich administrative data. Supported housing eligibility increases the probability of moving into supported housing and decreases the use of home care, resulting in higher total care expenditures. This increase is primarily due to the costs of supported housing, but potentially also higher consumption of curative mental health care. Supported housing eligibility reduces the total personal income and income from work. Findings do also suggest lower participation in the labor market by the individuals granted eligibility, but the labor participation of their parents increases in the long-run. Our study highlights the trade-offs of access to supported housing for those at the margin of eligibility, informing the design of long-term mental health care systems around the world.

Permanent nursing home (NH) admissions are a frequent and major life event aimed at maintaining quality of life in old age. Yet, insights into the impact of a NH admission on well-being are scarce and inconclusive. We evaluate the effect of a NH admission on domains of well-being among those who are admitted using event study methodology for cross-sections combined with inverse probability weighting. We apply this doubly robust approach to Dutch survey data on well-being linked to extensive administrative data on NH admissions, health, and socio-economic status. We find that a NH admission leads to a temporary increase in loneliness, the risk of anxiety and depression, and a loss of control over one's life. However, these scores revert to pre-admission levels after 6 months. These findings may contribute to better-informed individual-level and policy decisions about potential NH entry and aging in place policies.

In the Netherlands, about one-third of the adult population provides unpaid care. Providing informal caregiving can be very straining in normal times, but the impact of a public health crisis on caregivers is largely unknown. This study focuses on the question of how caregiver burden changed following the COVID-19 pandemic, and what characteristics were related to these changes. We use self-reported data from a sample of 965 informal caregivers from the Netherlands 3 months into the pandemic to investigate how the objective burden (i.e. hours spent on caregiving) and the subjective burden had changed, and what their care-related quality of life (CarerQol) was. We found that on average the subjective burden had increased slightly (from 4.75 to 5.04 on a 0–10 scale). However, our analysis revealed that some caregivers were more affected than others. Most affected caregivers were women, and those with low income, better physical health, decreased psychological health, childcare responsibilities, longer duration of caregiving and those caring for someone with decreased physical and psychological health. On average, time spent on care remained the same (a median of 15 h per week), but certain groups of caregivers did experience a change, being those caring for people in an institution and for people with a better psychological health before the pandemic. Furthermore, caregivers experiencing changes in objective burden did not have the same characteristics as those experiencing changes in perceived burden and quality of life. This shows that the consequences of a public health crisis on caregivers cannot be captured by a focus on either objective or subjective burden measures or quality of life alone. Long-term care policies aiming to support caregivers to persevere during a future crisis should target caregivers at risk of increased subjective burden and a lower CarerQol, such as women, people with a low income and people with childcare responsibilities. Such policies

Background: The burden of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a reduction of available health care capacity for regular care. To guide prioritisation of semielective surgery in times of scarcity, we previously developed a decision model to quantify the expected health loss due to delay of surgery, in an academic hospital setting. The aim of this study is to validate our decision model in a nonacademic setting and include additional elective surgical procedures. Methods: In this study, we used the previously published three-state cohort state-transition model, to evaluate the health effects of surgery postponement for 28 surgical procedures commonly performed in nonacademic hospitals. Scientific literature and national registries yielded nearly all input parameters, except for the quality of life (QoL) estimates which were obtained from experts using the Delphi method. Two expert panels, one from a single nonacademic hospital and one from different nonacademic hospitals in the Netherlands, were invited to estimate QoL weights. We compared estimated model results (disability adjusted life years (DALY)/month of surgical delay) based on the QoL estimates from the two panels by calculating the mean difference and the correlation between the ranks of the different surgical procedures. The eventual model was based on the combined QoL estimates from both panels. Results: Pacemaker implantation was associated with the most DALY/month of surgical delay (0.054 DALY/month, 95% CI: 0.025–0.103) and hemithyreoidectomy with the least DALY/month (0.006 DALY/month, 95% CI: 0.002–0.009). The overall mean difference of QoL estimates between the two panels was 0.005 (95% CI -0.014–0.004). The correlation between ranks was 0.983 (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Our study provides an overview of incurred health loss due to surgical delay for surgeries frequently performed in nonacademic hospitals. The quality of life estimates currently used in our model are robust and validate towards a di

Objectives To compare treatment and outcomes for patients admitted to hospital with a primary diagnosis of ST elevation or non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI or NSTEMI) in six high income countries with very different healthcare delivery systems. Design Retrospective cross sectional cohort study. Setting Patient level administrative data from the United States, Canada (Ontario and Manitoba), England, the Netherlands, Israel, and Taiwan. Participants Adults aged 66 years and older admitted to hospital with STEMI or NSTEMI between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2017. Outcomes measures The three categories of outcomes were coronary revascularisation (percutaneous coronary intervention or coronary artery bypass graft surgery), mortality, and efficiency (hospital length of stay and 30 day readmission). Rates were standardised to the age and sex distribution of the US acute myocardial infarction population in 2017. Outcomes were assessed separately for STEMI and NSTEMI. Performance was evaluated longitudinally (over time) and cross sectionally (between countries). Results The total number of hospital admissions ranged from 19 043 in Israel to 1 064 099 in the US. Large differences were found between countries for all outcomes. For example, the proportion of patients admitted to hospital with STEMI who received percutaneous coronary intervention in hospital during 2017 ranged from 36.9% (England) to 78.6% (Canada; 71.8% in the US); use of percutaneous coronary intervention for STEMI increased in all countries between 2011 and 2017, with particularly large rises in Israel (48.4-65.9%) and Taiwan (49.4-70.2%). The proportion of patients with NSTEMI who underwent coronary artery bypass graft surgery within 90 days of admission during 2017 was lowest in the Netherlands (3.5%) and highest in the US (11.7%). Death within one year of admission for STEMI in 2017 ranged from 18.9% (Net

Background: Persons with dementia need much care, but what care is used and how the burden of financing is divided between persons with dementia, caregivers, and public programs may differ between countries. Objective: The objective of this study was to compare how health care use and out-of-pocket (OOP) spending associated with dementia differ between the United States and Europe, with and without controlling for background characteristics. Research Design: We use prospectively collected survey data from the United States-based Health and Retirement Study (n = 48,877) and the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (n = 98,971) including all adults over the age of 70 years. Dementia status is imputed using a validated algorithm. After first reporting the observed differences in care use, we analyze how care use is associated with dementia using multivariate regressions, controlling for other health conditions and background characteristics. Results: Persons with dementia in the United States use 50% less formal home care per year than persons living with dementia in Europe [mean (SD) = 236.8 h (1047.4) vs. 463.3 h (1371.2)], but use more nursing home care [75.1 d (131.4) vs. 45.5 d (119.4)). Dementia is associated with higher OOP spending in the United States than Europe [4406 USD (95% confidence interval, 3914-4899) vs. 246 USD (73-418)-2017 price levels]. Conclusions: Health care use and OOP spending differ between Europe and the United States. The far greater reliance on nursing home care in the United States likely causes much higher expenditures for people with dementia and insurance programs alike.

Libre choix, maintien à domicile, accessibilité financière et maîtrise des dépenses publiques sont au cœur des débats sur la prise en charge de la dépendance. Afin de mieux concilier ces objectifs, les Pays-Bas ont développé de nouvelles prestations dépendance : les forfaits à domicile (VPT et MPT) et les prestations monétaires (PGB). En principe, ces prestations permettent à la personne âgée de bénéficier d’une prise en charge globale à son domicile. Le rôle joué par ces nouvelles options de prise en charge est à ce jour peu documenté. Cet article explique leur fonctionnement, notamment du point de vue du partage des coûts entre puissance publique et bénéficiaire, et mobilise différentes sources statistiques (données administratives individuelles et données agrégées) pour éclairer les développements récents. Davantage mobilisés par les moins dépendants mais aussi par les bénéficiaires les plus aisés, ces financements semblent contribuer autant au maintien à domicile qu’au développement d’établissements non conventionnés. Si ces nouvelles prestations favorisent des formes résidentielles intermédiaires et pourraient dégager des marges budgétaires, elles pourraient également remettre en cause l’équité dans la prise en charge et dans son financement qui sous-tend l’assurance sociale dépendance néerlandaise. Le cas des Pays-Bas fournit une illustration de la difficulté à mettre au point des dispositifs permettant de concilier libre choix et universalité de la prise en charge.