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Wednesday, July 21, 2004
9:30 AM - 10:00 AM
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
2:30 PM - 3:00 PM
This presentation is part of : Posters
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Hospital-Based Home Care Versus a Conventional Outpatient Follow-Up for Patients with Mental Illness
Sing-ling Tsai, RN, PhD, Nursing Department, Nursing Department, Taipei Veteran General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, Taiwan
Learning Objective #1: Describe the outcome measures of patients with schizophrenia living in the community
Learning Objective #2: Compare the cost for service of home care for schzophrenia and outpatient department follow-up
Objective: the purpose of this study was to compare the outcome of a hospital-based home-care model and conventional outpatient follow-up for mentally ill patients in Taiwan using a cost-effectiveness analysis. Methods: eighty mentally ill patients discharged from the psychiatric wards in a medical center in Taiwan participated in this study. The study design was a two group post hoc design. We interviewed forty mentally ill patients who were followed up in the psychiatric outpatient department. Another forty mentally ill patients who participated a hospital based home care program were also interviewed. The outcome measures we used for interviews were disease maintenance behavior, psychotic symptoms, social function, service satisfaction, and cost. Results: cost-effectiveness analysis showed that hospital-based home care costs lower than conventional outpatient follow-up and over year period, hospital-based home care was associated with improvement in mental conditions, social functional outcomes, and service satisfaction. Conclusion: the improved outcomes of the mentally ill patients and lower cost in the hospital-based home care program support its cost-effectiveness. The policy-makers may consider this analysis in resource allocation and policy development for care of mentally ill patients.

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Sigma Theta Tau International
July 21, 2004