Homecarestudy.Com

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Health reforms and the ongoing fiscal restraint of the 1990s led planners and policy makers to focus on home and community based services as alternatives to institutional care. Home care has come to be seen as a vehicle for achieving both policy goals by providing services "closer to home," and efficiency goals by lowering costs. National, provincial, and territorial governments, and regional health boards, recognize the importance of the role home care plays in our health care system. The National Evaluation of the Cost-Effectiveness of Home Care was a major program of research which provided critical new information to policy makers about the cost-effectiveness of home care in Canada. It had a budget of $1.5 million and was comprised of 15 interrelated substudies, six on the cost-effectiveness of home care compared to care in long term care facilities and nine on the cost-effectiveness of home care as an alternative to care in acute care hospitals. Each substudy examines a particular issue or question that arises out of comparing home care to institutional care and, as such, is like an individual piece of a larger puzzle. The results of the 15 studies, when fitted together, provide a picture of the cost-effectiveness of home care in Canada. The term home care is generally used to refer to services provided in the home or in the community to individuals with functional disabilities and to their families. These services can range from home support, such as a few hours a week of simple housekeeping, to full nursing and medical care, such as administering intravenous medications which were previously done only in hospitals. Home care is also provided on a short-term basis to assist people who are discharged from acute care hospitals. In addition, home care can provide palliative care, respite care and other related services to those in need.

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