Healthcare costs and productivity losses associated with county-based home-care service for sick children in Sweden

Cost-effectiveness of oral ondansetron for children with acute gastroenteritis in primary care: a randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND

Acute gastroenteritis is a common childhood condition with substantial medical and indirect costs, mostly because of referral, hospitalisation, and parental absence from work.

AIM

To determine the cost-effectiveness of adding oral ondansetron to care as usual (CAU) for children with acute gastroenteritis presenting to out-of-hours primary care (OOH-PC).

DESIGN AND SETTING

A pragmatic randomised controlled trial from December 2015 to January 2018, at three OOHPC centres in the north of the Netherlands (Groningen, Zwolle, and Assen) with a follow-up of 7 days.

METHOD

Children were recruited at the OOH-PC and parents kept a parental diary. Inclusion criteria were: aged 6 months-6 years; diagnosis of acute gastroenteritis; at least four reported episodes of vomiting 24 hours before presentation, at least one of which was in the 4 hours before presentation; and written informed consent from both parents. Children were randomly allocated at a 1:1 ratio to either CAU (oral rehydration therapy) or CAU plus one dose of 0.1 mg/kg oral ondansetron.

RESULTS

In total, 194 children were included for randomisation. One dose of oral ondansetron decreased the proportion of children who continued vomiting within the first 4 hours from 42.9% to 19.5%, (a decrease of 54.5%), with an odds ratio of 0.4 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.2 to 0.7; number needed to treat: four). Total mean costs in the ondansetron group were 31.2% lower (€488 [£420] versus €709 [£610]), and the total incremental mean costs for an additional child free of vomiting in the first 4 hours was -€9 (£8) (95% CI = -€41 [£35] to €3 [£3]).

CONCLUSION

A single oral dose of ondansetron for children with acute gastroenteritis, given in OOH-PC settings, is both clinically beneficial and cost-effective.

The Childhood Cancer Centre Is Coming Home: Experiences of Hospital-Based Home Care

Today, there is a shift towards care being given closer to the patient, with more children receiving care in their homes. Care at home has proven to be a viable alternative to hospital care, as shown by a project for hospital-based home care conducted in West Sweden. The aim of this study was to describe how children with cancer and parents experienced receiving care at home. After purposive sampling, six children with cancer aged 6–16 and eight parents participated. Semistructured interviews were performed, and the data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Four main categories emerged: save time and energy in the family; maintain everyday life; feel trust in the healthcare professionals; mixed feelings about getting treatment at home. This hospital-based home care project created good conditions for both children with cancer and their parents to feel secure. In addition, home care can be very child-centric, whereby the caregivers involve the children by taking their thoughts and utterances into account.

Healthcare costs and productivity losses associated with county-based home-care service for sick children in Sweden

AIMS

The aim of this study was to estimate the healthcare costs and productivity losses associated with county-based home-care services (HCS) for sick children.

METHODS

In this observational follow-up study, a combination of hospital care and HCS was compared to estimated alternative care solely at the hospital. Data on one year of healthcare utilisation for 32 children, supplied by the hospital and HCS, were collected from administrative systems. Corresponding healthcare unit prices were collected from healthcare pricelists. The human-capital approach was applied to estimate productivity losses and the value of productivity losses for 25 parents. Family characteristics, including parental work absenteeism and income, were collected by a questionnaire distributed to parents at five time points during a year. Descriptive and comparative statistics were used for analysis and carried out with ethical approval.

RESULTS

Healthcare costs for children receiving a combination of hospital care and HCS varied among children with estimated average healthcare cost savings of SEK 50 101 per child compared to the alternative of care provided only in the hospital. The reduced costs were related to children receiving nonpalliative HCS care tasks. Average annual productivity losses due to parental work absenteeism were estimated at 348 hours with an associated monetary value estimated at SEK 137 524 per parent.

CONCLUSION

County-based HCS, provided as complement to and substitute for hospital care for ill children, does not increase healthcare cost and should be a prioritized area when organising paediatric health care. Productivity losses vary greatly among parents and are pronounced also when children receive HCS with signs of gender-related differences.