Applied health economics and health policy
-
Appl Health Econ Health Policy · Jan 2002
ReviewWhat do we know about hospital at home? Lessons from international experience.
Hospital in the home' or 'hospital at home' services have become popular solutions to the apparent problems of conventional hospital care in many countries. Until recently their evaluation has been limited, and little has been known about their costs and benefits. ⋯ Overall it does not appear that such services produce cost savings, although this may depend greatly on local circumstances. This discussion paper uses the findings of a systematic review of the literature evaluating hospital at home and hospital in the home services to answer questions surrounding the supplementary or substitution status of these services.
-
Appl Health Econ Health Policy · Jan 2002
Cost-benefit analysis of ambulance and rescue helicopters in Norway: reflections on assigning a monetary value to saving a human life.
This paper reports the results of a cost-benefit analysis undertaken in 1996 for a public commission set up to plan the future operation of state-owned ambulance and rescue helicopters in Norway. The analysis indicates that the benefits of ambulance missions flown by helicopters exceeds the costs by a factor of almost six. To do this analysis it was necessary to assign a monetary value to human life. ⋯ It is concluded that human preferences for the provision of health care or other life-saving interventions are probably too complex to be adequately represented by means of a single monetary value expressing the benefits of life-saving. The task of developing an inclusive framework for a normative approach to priority setting in injury prevention is daunting, and may be insoluble. It is important to assess the extent to which current value-of-life estimates depend on study methods and social context.