Is limiting COVID-19 outside hospitals cost-effective? Cost-effectiveness analysis of the Italian special care continuity units (USCA)

Arianna Lippi; Darryl Jason Price; Rodolfo Benelli; Giuseppe Lippi; Arianna Lippi; Darryl Jason Price; Rodolfo Benelli; Giuseppe Lippi

doi:10.3934/NAR.2022024

National Accounting Review

2022, Volume 4, Issue 4: 428-447. doi: 10.3934/NAR.2022024

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Research article

Is limiting COVID-19 outside hospitals cost-effective? Cost-effectiveness analysis of the Italian special care continuity units (USCA)

1.
Resident doctor ST2 Infectious Disease, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
2.
Management consultant, Spinelli & associati, Florence, Italy
3.
General Practitioner and USCA Figline, Azienda Sanitaria Toscana Centro, Florence, Italy
4.
USCA Figline Representative, Azienda Sanitaria Toscana Centro, Florence, Italy

Received: 14 November 2022 Revised: 10 December 2022 Accepted: 20 December 2022 Published: 28 December 2022
JEL Codes: I180

Italian USCAs are composed of a team of specialists that visit COVID-19 patients at their homes so as to hospitalize promptly only the most serious cases. This paper was carried out on an USCA located in the surroundings of Florence, which operates on a vast hilly area of almost 60,000 inhabitants. The mean specific cost for each USCA patient is about 470€ and personnel cost alone is close to 90% of total direct specific costs. The Cost-Effectiveness Analysis developed in this article demonstrates that avoiding hospitalization of only 3% of USCA patients would be enough to offset the full cost of the USCA.
- COVID-19,
- costs,
- CEA,
- cost effectiveness analysis,
- USCA,
- territory
Citation: Arianna Lippi, Darryl Jason Price, Rodolfo Benelli, Giuseppe Lippi. Is limiting COVID-19 outside hospitals cost-effective? Cost-effectiveness analysis of the Italian special care continuity units (USCA)[J]. National Accounting Review, 2022, 4(4): 428-447. doi: 10.3934/NAR.2022024

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Abstract

Italian USCAs are composed of a team of specialists that visit COVID-19 patients at their homes so as to hospitalize promptly only the most serious cases. This paper was carried out on an USCA located in the surroundings of Florence, which operates on a vast hilly area of almost 60,000 inhabitants. The mean specific cost for each USCA patient is about 470€ and personnel cost alone is close to 90% of total direct specific costs. The Cost-Effectiveness Analysis developed in this article demonstrates that avoiding hospitalization of only 3% of USCA patients would be enough to offset the full cost of the USCA.

References

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