OBJECTIVES: Although measuring the utilization of ambulatory and home-based healthcare resources is an essential component of economic analyses, very little methodological attention has been devoted to the development and evaluation of resource costing tools. This study evaluated a newly developed tool, the Ambulatory and Home Care Record (AHCR), which comprehensively evaluates costs incurred by the health system and care recipients and their unpaid caregivers. METHODS: The level of agreement between self-reports from 110 cystic fibrosis care recipients and administrative data was assessed for four categories of health services: home-based visits with healthcare professionals, ambulatory visits with healthcare professionals, laboratory and diagnostic tests, and prescription medications. RESULTS: Agreement between care recipients' reports on the AHCR and administrative data ranged from moderate (kappa = 0.41; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.16-0.61) for physician specialist visits to perfect (kappa = 1.0) for physiotherapy visits. CONCLUSIONS: By evaluating and standardizing a resource and costing tool, such as the AHCR, economic evaluations may be improved and comparisons of the resource implications for different services and for diverse populations are possible.
OBJECTIVES: Although measuring the utilization of ambulatory and home-based healthcare resources is an essential component of economic analyses, very little methodological attention has been devoted to the development and evaluation of resource costing tools. This study evaluated a newly developed tool, the Ambulatory and Home Care Record (AHCR), which comprehensively evaluates costs incurred by the health system and care recipients and their unpaid caregivers. METHODS: The level of agreement between self-reports from 110 cystic fibrosis care recipients and administrative data was assessed for four categories of health services: home-based visits with healthcare professionals, ambulatory visits with healthcare professionals, laboratory and diagnostic tests, and prescription medications. RESULTS: Agreement between care recipients' reports on the AHCR and administrative data ranged from moderate (kappa = 0.41; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.16-0.61) for physician specialist visits to perfect (kappa = 1.0) for physiotherapy visits. CONCLUSIONS: By evaluating and standardizing a resource and costing tool, such as the AHCR, economic evaluations may be improved and comparisons of the resource implications for different services and for diverse populations are possible.
Authors: Josephine C Jacobs; Todd H Wagner; Ranak Trivedi; Karl Lorenz; Courtney H Van Houtven Journal: Health Serv Res Date: 2021-06-03 Impact factor: 3.402