Economic evaluation of the NSW hospital in the home pilot project, CHERE Project Report No 15

As part of an NSW Department of Health initiative to explore innovative models of providing hospital type care, Hospital in the Home (HITH) was expanded to rural areas. For the purpose of this initiative HITH was defined as the provision of acute health care which is provided to people living in their homes, or in their usual place of residence. The HITH programs were to be an alternative to acute inpatient care in the hospital. Several rural hospitals were selected to pilot the program, and as part of the pilot they agreed to participate in an evaluation of HITH in rural settings. The pilot program ran for a year ? starting approximately September 1998 with the evaluation beginning after completion of all pilots. The Centre for Health Economics (CHERE), using data that was collected as part of the pilot project, data from the Case Mix Policy Unit and interviews with various providers undertook a limited economic evaluation. The goals of the pilot project were to try to ascertain whether HITH was an effective, and less costly way to provide care, whether it improved continuity of care, access to care, and was viable in rural areas. The ability to answer these questions was limited given the data available and the scope of the project. However, even though there are limitations to the study the results provide some useful information for evaluating HITH in a rural setting.