Systematic care for caregivers of people with dementia in the ambulatory mental health service: designing a multicentre, cluster, randomized, controlled trial

Contains fulltext : 81435.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: Care for people with dementia and their informal caregivers is a challenging aim in healthcare. There is an urgent need for cost-effective support programs that prevent informal caregivers of people with dementia from becoming overburdened, which might result in a delay or decrease of patient institutionalization. For this reason, we have developed the Systematic Care Program for Dementia (SCPD). The SCPD consists of an assessment of caregiver's sense of competence and suggestions on how to deal with competence deficiencies. The efficiency of the SCPD will be evaluated in our study. METHODS AND DESIGN: In our ongoing, cluster, randomized, single-blind, controlled trial, the participants in six mental health services in four regions of the Netherlands have been randomized per service. Professionals of the ambulatory mental health services (psychologists and social psychiatric nurses) have been randomly allocated to either the intervention group or the control group. The study population consists of community-dwelling people with dementia and their informal caregivers (patient-caregiver dyads) coming into the health service. The dyads have been clustered to the professionals. The primary outcome measure is the patient's admission to a nursing home or home for the elderly at 12 months of follow-up. This measure is the most important variable for estimating cost differences between the intervention group and the control group. The secondary outcome measure is the quality of the patient's and caregiver's lives. DISCUSSION: A novelty in the SCPD is the pro-active and systematic approach. The focus on the caregiver's sense of competence is relevant to economical healthcare, since this sense of competence is an important determinant of delay of institutionalization of people with dementia. The SCPD might be able to facilitate this with a relatively small cost investment for caregivers' support, which could result in a major decrease in costs in the management of dementia. Implementation on a national level will be started if the SCPD proves to be efficient. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT00147693

Variable prospective financing in the Danish hospital sector and the development of a Danish case-mix system

This article aims to describe and assess the Danish case-mix system, the cost accounting applied in setting national tariffs and the introduction of variable, prospective payment in the Danish hospital sector. The tariffs are calculated as a national average from hospital data gathered in a national cost database. However, uncertainty, mainly resulting from the definition of cost centres at the individual hospital, implies that the cost weights may not fully reflect the hospital treatment cost. As variable prospective payment of hospitals currently only applies to 20% of a hospital's budget, the incentives and the effects on productivity, quality and equality are still limited. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2006Hospital-costs, Reimbursement mechanisms, Diagnosis-related groups, Denmark,

Gerenciamento de custos: aplicação do método de Custeio Baseado em Atividades em Centro de Material Esterilizado Gerenciamiento de costos: aplicación del Método de Costeo Basado en actividades en centro de material esterilizado Cost management: the implementation of the Activity-Based Costing method in sterile processing department

Esta pesquisa exploratória descritiva, na modalidade de estudo de caso, teve por objetivo a aplicação do Custeio Baseado em Atividades (ABC) em Centro de Material e Esterilização (CME) de um hospital de ensino de capacidade extra. A coleta de dados ocorreu durante o ano de 2006, utilizando-se as técnicas de análise documental e observação direta não participante. A análise de processos possibilitou o conhecimento dos custos do ciclo/carga de desinfecção química ($9.95) e física ($12.63), e esterilização por vapor saturado sob pressão ($31.37) e por vapor de Baixa Temperatura e Formaldeído Gasoso ($255.28). As informações geradas pelo ABC resultaram na compreensão do processo gerador de custos e forneceram base para a mensuração de desempenho e melhorias de processos do CME.<br>Esta investigación exploratoria descriptiva efectuada en la modalidad de estudio de caso, tuvo por objetivo la aplicación del Costeo Basado en Actividades (ABC) en un Centro de Material y Esterilización (CME) de un hospital de enseñanza de capacidad extra. La recolección de datos se efectuó durante el año 2006 utilizándose las técnicas de análisis documental y observación directa no participativa. El análisis de procesos posibilitó el conocimiento de los costos de ciclo/carga de desinfección química ($9,95) y física ($12,63), y de esterilización por vapor saturado bajo presión ($31,37) y por vapor de baja temperatura y formaldehido gaseoso ($255,28). Las informaciones generadas por el ABC favorecieron la comprensión del proceso generador de costos y brindaron una base para la medición de desempeño y mejorías de procesos del CME.<br>This exploratory case study was performed aiming at implementing the Activity-based Costing (ABC) method in a Sterile Processing Department (SPD) of a major teaching hospital. Data collection was performed throughout 2006. Documentary research techniques and non participant closed observation were used. The ABC implementation allowed for learning the activity-based costing of both the chemical and physical disinfection cycle/load: ($9.95) and ($12.63), respectively; as well as the cost for sterilization by steam under pressure (autoclave) ($31.37) and low temperature steam and gaseous formaldehyde sterilization (LTSF) ($255.28). The information provided by the ABC method has optimized the overall understanding of the cost driver process and provided the foundation for assessing performance and improvement in the SPD processes