The cost-effectiveness of the decision to hospitalize nursing home residents with advanced dementia.

CONTEXT

Nursing home (NH) residents with advanced dementia commonly experience burdensome and costly hospitalizations that may not extend survival or improve quality of life. Cost-effectiveness analyses of decisions to hospitalize these residents have not been reported.

OBJECTIVES

To estimate the cost-effectiveness of 1) not having a do-not-hospitalize (DNH) order and 2) hospitalization for suspected pneumonia in NH residents with advanced dementia.

METHODS

NH residents from 22 NHs in the Boston area were followed in the Choices, Attitudes, and Strategies for Care of Advanced Dementia at the End-of-Life study conducted between February 2003 and February 2009. We conducted cost-effectiveness analyses of aggressive treatment strategies for advanced dementia residents living in NHs when they suffer from acute illness. Primary outcome measures included quality-adjusted life days (QALD) and quality-adjusted life years, Medicare expenditures, and incremental net benefits (INBs) over 15 months.

RESULTS

Compared with a less aggressive strategy of avoiding hospital transfer (i.e., having DNH orders), the strategy of hospitalization was associated with an incremental increase in Medicare expenditures of $5972 and an incremental gain in quality-adjusted survival of 3.7 QALD. Hospitalization for pneumonia was associated with an incremental increase in Medicare expenditures of $3697 and an incremental reduction in quality-adjusted survival of 9.7 QALD. At a willingness-to-pay level of $100,000/quality-adjusted life years, the INBs of the more aggressive treatment strategies were negative and, therefore, not cost effective (INB for not having a DNH order, -$4958 and INB for hospital transfer for pneumonia, -$6355).

CONCLUSION

Treatment strategies favoring hospitalization for NH residents with advanced dementia are not cost effective.