Does Better Disease Management in Primary Care Reduce Hospital Costs?

TY - UNPB

T1 - Does Better Disease Management in Primary Care Reduce Hospital Costs?

AU - Dusheiko, Mark Alan

AU - Gravelle, Hugh Stanley Emrys

AU - Martin, Stephen

AU - Rice, Nigel

AU - Smith, Peter C

PY - 2011/8

Y1 - 2011/8

N2 - We apply cross-sectional and panel data methods to a database of 5 million patients in 8,000 English general practices to examine whether better primary care management of 10 chronic diseases is associated with reduced hospital costs. We find that only primary care performance in stroke care is associated with lower hospital costs. Our results suggest that the 10% improvement in the general practice quality of stroke care between 2004/5 and 2007/8 reduced 2007/8 hospital expenditure by about £130 million in England. The cost savings are due mainly to reductions in emergency admissions and outpatient visits, rather than to lower costs for patients treated in hospital or to reductions in elective admissions.

AB - We apply cross-sectional and panel data methods to a database of 5 million patients in 8,000 English general practices to examine whether better primary care management of 10 chronic diseases is associated with reduced hospital costs. We find that only primary care performance in stroke care is associated with lower hospital costs. Our results suggest that the 10% improvement in the general practice quality of stroke care between 2004/5 and 2007/8 reduced 2007/8 hospital expenditure by about £130 million in England. The cost savings are due mainly to reductions in emergency admissions and outpatient visits, rather than to lower costs for patients treated in hospital or to reductions in elective admissions.

KW - Quality

KW - disease management

KW - primary care

KW - hospital costs

KW - ambulatory care sensitive conditions

KW - preventative care

M3 - Discussion paper

T3 - CHE Research Paper

BT - Does Better Disease Management in Primary Care Reduce Hospital Costs?

PB - Centre for Health Economics, University of York

CY - York, UK

ER -