Authors' objectives:

The aim of this report is to summarise the use of resources during the last year of life of those patients undergoing palliative treatment and who died from cancer in 1998 in the town of Mataro, considering the use of PADES or not. The report intends, therefore, to quantify the health care resources consumed by the mentioned population, as well as to estimate the potential savings that this type of home service may produce.

Authors' recommendations: Terminal-stage cancer patients attended in the PADES have a lower consumption of hospital resources, have fewer admissions at the palliative care units, fewer emergency consultations and fewer external consultations than the alternative not using the PADES team. Translation into monetary units of this use of resources shows differences between both health care alternatives ranging from 72,654 to 185,263 Pta. per patient during the last month of life, according to the considered setting, which may lead to considerable savings of health care resources. However, the impact of the different palliative care alternatives on the quality of life of patients and their families should also be measured, together with the impact on the consumption of resources, and by means of reliable, valid scales and tools.

Authors' methods: Overview

Project Status: Completed

URL for project: http://www.gencat.net/salut/depsan/units/aatrm/html/en/dir393/doc7921.ht ml

Year Published: 2000

English language abstract: An English language summary is available

Publication Type: Not Assigned

Country: Spain

Organisation Name: Agencia de Qualitat i Avaluacio Sanitries de Catalunya

Contact Address: Antoni Parada, CAHTA, Roc Boronat, 81-95 (2nd floor), 08005 Barcelona, Spain, Tel. +34 935 513 928, Fax: +34 935 517 510

Contact Name: direccio@aatrm.catsalut.net / aparada@aatrm.catsalut.net

Contact Email: direccio@aatrm.catsalut.net / aparada@aatrm.catsalut.net

Copyright: Catalan Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Research (CAHTA)