Cost analysis of early supported hospital discharge for stroke

Abstract

Objective: to measure the net costs to the health and personal social services of an early supported discharge policy for stroke Design and setting: cost analysis, using data from a pragmatic randomized controlled trial conducted in three hospitals in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Subjects: 92 people admitted with acute stroke within 72 h of onset from their own homes with no co-morbidity likely to affect rehabilitation. Main outcome measures: health and personal social service costs. Results: early supported discharge reduced median length of hospital by almost half (14 days vs 26 days, P = 0.02). The costs of the service were and £7155 per patient compared with and £7480 for conventional hospital care. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated that this result was robust to changes in values of bed days and exclusion of particular resource use items. Sub-group analysis suggested that costs were related to physical dependency Conclusions: early supported discharge provided a cost-effective alternative in the management of stroke care. However, a larger study is required to assess the generalisability of the results and long-term cost effectiveness.