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Does a Hospital Palliative Care Team Have the Potential to Reduce the Cost of a Terminal Hospitalization? A Retrospective Case-Control Study in a Czech Tertiary University Hospital.
- Source :
- Journal of Palliative Medicine; Jul2022, Vol. 25 Issue 7, p1088-1094, 7p
- Publication Year :
- 2022
-
Abstract
- Background: More than 50% of patients worldwide die in hospitals and end-of-life care is costly. We aimed to explore whether support from the palliative team can influence end-of-life costs. Methods: This was a descriptive retrospective case–control study conducted at a Czech tertiary hospital. We explored the difference in daily hospital costs between patients who died with and without the support of the hospital palliative care team from January 2019 to April 2020. Big data from registries of routine visits were used for case–control matching. As secondary outcomes, we compared the groups over the duration of the terminal hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) days, intravenous antibiotics, magnetic resonance imaging/computed tomography scans, oncological treatment in the last month of life, and documentation of the dying phase. Standard descriptive statistics were used to describe the data, and differences between the case and control groups were tested using Fisher's exact test for categorical variables and the Mann–Whitney U test for numerical data. Results: In total, 213 dyads were identified. The average daily costs were three times lower in the palliative group (4392.4 CZK per day = 171.3 EUR) than in the nonpalliative group (13992.8 CZK per day = 545.8 EUR), and the difference was probably associated with the shorter time spent in the ICU (16% vs. 33% of hospital days). Conclusions: We showed that the integration of the palliative care team in the dying phase can be cost saving. These data could support the implementation of hospital palliative care in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- ANTIBIOTICS
INTENSIVE care units
LENGTH of stay in hospitals
TERMINAL care
CROSS-sectional method
RESEARCH methodology
MEDICAL care costs
COST control
RETROSPECTIVE studies
ACQUISITION of data
MAGNETIC resonance imaging
FISHER exact test
MANN Whitney U Test
MEDICAL care use
HOSPITAL care
MEDICAL records
DESCRIPTIVE statistics
COMPUTED tomography
PALLIATIVE treatment
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 10966218
- Volume :
- 25
- Issue :
- 7
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Palliative Medicine
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 157766687
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1089/jpm.2021.0529