Cost-effectiveness of a short stay admission programme for breast cancer surgery.
BACKGROUND
Short stay (admission, surgery, and discharge the same day or within 24 hours) following breast cancer surgery is part of an established care protocol but as yet not well implemented in Europe. Alongside a before-after multi-centre implementation study, an economic evaluation was performed exploring the cost-effectiveness of a short stay programme (SSP) versus care as usual (CAU).


METHODS
In the implementation study, 324 patients were included. In the economic evaluation a societal perspective was applied with a six week time horizon. Cost data were obtained from Case Record Forms and cost diaries. Effectiveness was assessed by calculating Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs), using the EuroQol-5D. Cost-effectiveness was expressed as the incremental costs per QALY.


RESULTS
Mean societal costs decreased by euro955,- (95% CI euro - 2104,- to euro157,-) for patients in SSP (n=127) compared with CAU (n=135). Mean healthcare costs differed euro883,- (95% CI euro - 1560,- to euro870,-) in favour of SSP. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio could not be calculated due to similar effectiveness for both groups, i.e. the difference in QALYs was zero. The cost-effectiveness acceptability curves showed that the probability that SSP was more cost-effective than CAU was over 90% in the base-case analysis.


CONCLUSIONS
A short stay programme as implemented is cost-effective compared with care as usual. In achieving good and more efficient quality of care, larger scale implementation is warranted.
de Kok
Mascha
M
Department of Surgery, Maastricht University Medical Center, PO Box 5800 Maastricht, the Netherlands. m.dekok@ah.unimaas.nl
Dirksen
Carmen D
CD
Kessels
Alfons G
AG
van der Weijden
Trudy
T
van de Velde
Cornelis J
CJ
Roukema
Jan A
JA
Bell
Antoine V
AV
van der Ent
Fred W
FW
von Meyenfeldt
Maarten F
MF
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000191:economics* / Q000534:rehabilitation / Q000601:surgery*; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D004522:Educational Status; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000639:trends*; D006701:Home Nursing / Q000191:economics; D017721:Hospital Costs / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000191:economics*; D017533:Marital Status; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D015397:Program Evaluation; D019057:Quality-Adjusted Life Years; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors