Background: The number of residents in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) in need of palliative care is growing in the Western world. Therefore, it is foreseen that significantly higher percentages of budgets will be spent on palliative care. However, cost-effectiveness analyses of palliative care interventions in these settings are lacking. Therefore, the objective of this paper was to assess the cost-effectiveness of the 'PACE Steps to Success' intervention. PACE (Palliative Care for Older People) is a 1-year palliative care programme aiming at integrating general palliative care into day-to-day routines in LTCFs, throughout seven EU countries.
Methods: A cluster RCT was conducted. LTCFs were randomly assigned to intervention or usual care. LTCFs reported deaths of residents, about whom questionnaires were filled in retrospectively about resource use and quality of the last month of life. A health care perspective was adopted. Direct medical costs, QALYs based on the EQ-5D-5L and costs per quality increase measured with the QOD-LTC were outcome measures.
Results: Although outcomes on the EQ-5D-5L remained the same, a significant increase on the QOD-LTC (3.19 points, p value 0.00) and significant cost-savings were achieved in the intervention group (€983.28, p value 0.020). The cost reduction mainly resulted from decreased hospitalization-related costs (€919.51, p value 0.018).
Conclusions: Costs decreased and QoL was retained due to the PACE Steps to Success intervention. Significant cost savings and improvement in quality of end of life (care) as measured with the QOD-LTC were achieved. A clinically relevant difference of almost 3 nights shorter hospitalizations in favour of the intervention group was found. This indicates that timely palliative care in the LTCF setting can prevent lengthy hospitalizations while retaining QoL. In line with earlier findings, we conclude that integrating general palliative care into daily routine in LTCFs can be cost-effective.
Trial Registration: ISRCTN14741671 .
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01720-9 | DOI Listing |
Can J Anaesth
January 2025
Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Alberta Health Services and Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, South Health Campus, 4448 Front St. SE, Calgary, AB, T3M 1M4, Canada.
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Int Urol Nephrol
January 2025
Department of Urology and Urosurgery, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University Medical Centre Mannheim (UMM), University of Heidelberg, Theodor-Kutzer-Ufer 1-3, 68167, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
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Clin Res Hepatol Gastroenterol
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Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology, Roger Williams Medical Center. 825 Chalkstone Ave, Providence, RI 02908, USA. Boston University School of Medicine. 72 E Concord St, Boston, MA 02118, USA. Electronic address:
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Transplant Cell Ther
January 2025
Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA; USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston MA; USA.
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