title: Networking and data sharing reduces hospitalization cost of heart failure: the experience of GISC study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Heart failure (HF) is a concerning public health burden in Western society because, despite the improvement of medical treatments, it is still associated with adverse outcomes (high morbidity and mortality), resulting in one of the most expensive chronic disease in Western countries. Hospital admission particularly is the most expensive cost driver among the several resources involved in the management of HF. The aim of our study was to investigate the cost of hospitalization before and after the enrolment to a new strategy (GISC) in the management of patients with HF.
  
  
  METHODS
  We enrolled a cohort of 90 patients. Patients were eligible to the study if they were hospitalized with a new diagnosis of HF or a diagnosis of decompensated HF. The enrolment to the study corresponded to the enrolment to the GISC intervention. We calculated the cost for every hospital admission at 6 and 12 months before and after the enrolment using the tariff paid for the diagnosis-related group.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Comparing per-patient cumulative cost before and after the enrolment, we showed that patient's hospitalization was less expensive after the enrolment to the GISC intervention. The strategy resulted in an average cumulative estimated saving of €439322.00 (95% CI €413890.70; €464753.40) at 6 months and of €832276.80 (95% CI €786863.70; €877690.00) at 12 months after the enrolment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found out that the intervention was a cost-saving strategy for follow-up of the patients suffering from HF at 6 and 12 months after the enrolment compared with hospitalizations' cost before the recruitment.
authors.affiliation: AUSL/Lecce, Lecce, Italy.
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pisanò
authors.forename: Giulia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lorenzoni
authors.forename: Stefano S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Sabato
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Soriani
authors.forename: Ottavio
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Narraci
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Accogli
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rosato
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: de Paolis
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Folino
authors.forename: Gianfranco
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Buja
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tona
authors.forename: Ileana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Baldi
authors.forename: Sabino
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Iliceto
authors.forename: Dario
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gregori
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002309:Cardiology; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D003953:Diagnosis-Related Groups; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D005260:Female; D058006:General Practice; D066275:Health Information Exchange / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000191:economics*; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D008297:Male; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010346:Patient Care Management / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D015397:Program Evaluation
keywords: evaluation; health services research; public health