Abstract

Introduction

Economic evaluations of health technologies and health interventions are considered in many countries as the fourth barrier for adopting new services or drugs; followed by safety, efficacy and quality. The validity and reliability of the results will depend on the perspective of the study, timeframe of the analysis, discount rate, the model used and the costs involved.

Objectives

This study aims to assess the cost effectiveness of home care treatment in users with diagnosis of uncomplicated community acquired pneumonia compared with traditional hospitalization at inpatient wards. The hypothesis is that home based care would be more cost effective compared to traditional hospitalization.

Methods

The study perspective was from the health provider. Microcosting was used to determine the costs of both treatment modalities in a sample of 20 users treated with each modality during 2013 at main Hospitals of Coquimbo Region, Chile.

Results

The main outcome of effectiveness was the number of inpatient care days saved. Additionally, number of infections associated to health care (IAHC) and type of discharge were measured.

Conclusions

The study concludes that there is a better cost effectiveness relationship for the home care modality, with fewer days of treatment, at lower costs and without risk of IAHC. However, further studies are needed in order to achieve accurate results.