HEC Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Int J Technol Assess Health Care. 2013 Apr;29(2):155-61. doi: 10.1017/S0266462313000111. Epub 2013 Mar 20.
There have been very few assessments of the economics of home telemonitoring, and the quality of evidence has often been weakened by methodological flaws. This has made it difficult to compare telehomecare with traditional home care for the chronic diseases studied. This economic analysis is an attempt to address this gap in the literature.
We have analyzed the consumption of healthcare services by 95 patients with various chronic diseases over a 21-month period, that is, 12 months before, 4 months during home telemonitoring use, and over 5 months after withdraw of the technology.
Our findings indicate significant benefits to the home telemonitoring program as evidenced by large reductions in number of hospitalizations, length of average hospital stay, and, to a lesser extent, number of emergency room visits. Contrary to expectations, however, the number of home visits by nurses increased both during and after the telemonitoring intervention. In terms of the financial analysis, the telehomecare program resulted in significant savings: the equivalent of over CAD1,557 per patient as calculated on an annualized basis. This represents a net gain of 41 percent as compared to traditional home care.
While the present economic analysis led to positive results, additional assessments should be conducted to confirm the cost-effectiveness of this mode of care delivery.
对家庭远程监护的经济学评估很少，而且由于方法上的缺陷，证据的质量往往受到削弱。这使得比较远程家庭护理与所研究慢性病的传统家庭护理变得困难。这项经济分析试图弥补文献中的这一空白。
我们分析了 95 名患有各种慢性病的患者在 21 个月内（即使用家庭远程监护前 12 个月、使用期间 4 个月以及停用后 5 个月）的医疗服务消费情况。
我们的研究结果表明，家庭远程监护计划具有显著的效益，表现在住院人数、平均住院时间显著减少，急诊次数略有减少。然而，与预期相反，护士在远程监护干预期间和之后的家访次数都有所增加。从财务分析的角度来看，远程家庭护理计划节省了大量费用：按年度计算，每位患者节省超过 1557 加元。与传统家庭护理相比，这代表了 41%的净收益。
尽管目前的经济分析得出了积极的结果，但应进行额外的评估，以确认这种护理模式的成本效益。
