Home care for life-supported persons: the French system of quality control, technology assessment, and cost containment.

Home care for persons who require the prolonged use of life-supportive medical technology is a reality in several nations. France has had more than a quarter of a century of experience with providing home care for patients with chronic respiratory insufficiency and with a system to evaluate the patients' outcomes. The French approach features decentralized regional organizations which offer grassroots involvement by the beneficiaries who participate directly in the system. Since June 1981, a national organization has provided patients, professionals, and others concerned with direct access to national funding authorities and governmental officials and has created a data base for evaluation of the experience. This system permits direct input by current users of the services and creates informed opinion among members of the general public, governmental officials, and others involved (health care professionals and service providers). This is essential for the development of responsive public policy and for the determination of the relevancy of programs. In the United States, increasing demands are being made upon expensive hospital services by patients with diseases such as AIDS and other catastrophic, long-term care conditions. Cost-saving, community-oriented home care models serving complex medical-societal needs abroad are worthy of study to discern possible applications to health and social problems in our nation.