title: Resource use and costs of end-of-Life/palliative care: Ontario adult cancer patients dying during 2002 and 2003.
abstract: The objective of this study is to estimate the direct medical cost of end-of-life and palliative (EOL/PAL) care for cancer patients during the last six months of their lives--or, during the period from diagnosis to death, if briefer--in 2002 and 2003, in Ontario, Canada. A linkage of cancer registry and administrative data is used to determine the costs of health care resources used during the EOL/PAL care period. Costs are analyzed by cancer diagnosis, location of death, and type of service. The total Ontario Ministry of Health-funded cost of EOL/PAL care for cancer patients is estimated to be about CAD$544 million per year, with an average per patient cost of about $25,000 in 2002-2003. Our results suggest that acute care consumes 75 percent of EOL/PAL funding and that only a small proportion of health care services used by EOL/PAL care cancer patients is likely to be formal palliative care.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Oncology and of Community Health and Epidemiology, Queen's University, 10 Stuart Street, 2nd Level, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. hugh@walkereconomics.com
authors.forename: Hugh
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.forename: Farah
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Farahati
authors.forename: Doris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Howell
authors.forename: S Lawrence
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Librach
authors.forename: Amna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Husain
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sussman
authors.forename: Raymond
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Viola
authors.forename: Rinku
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sutradhar
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Barbera
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002170:Canada; D004180:Direct Service Costs; D016527:Drug Costs; D005251:Fees, Medical; D005260:Female; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006801:Humans; D007326:Institutionalization / Q000191:economics; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000191:economics* / Q000628:therapy; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000191:economics*