Economic assessment of the community-acquired pneumonia intervention trial employing levofloxacin
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess use of a critical pathway designed to manage community-acquired pneumonia more efficiently than its management with conventional therapy.
METHODS: Economic outcomes were assessed in conjunction with a cluster-design, randomized, controlled trial. Nineteen participating Canadian hospitals were randomized to implement the critical pathway (n = 9) or conventional therapy (n = 10). The critical pathway included a clinical prediction rule to guide the admission decision, treatment with levofloxacin, and practice guidelines. Patient data on medical resource use, lost productivity, and quality of life were collected prospectively for > or =6 weeks after treatment. Costs were calculated from the government, health care system, and societal perspectives, with imputation of missing outpatient costs and the costs of lost productivity when necessary. Bootstrapping was used to identify 95% CIs for the total cost per patient.
RESULTS: The analysis included all eligible patients in the critical pathway (n = 716) and conventional therapy (n = 1027) arms. There were fewer hospital admissions in the critical pathway arm than in the conventional therapy arm, both overall (46.5% vs 62.2%; P = 0.01) and in low-risk patients (33.2% vs 46.8%; P < 0.001). Compared with conventional therapy, hospitals in the critical pathway arm had 1.6 fewer bed days per patient managed (P = 0.05) and used fewer inpatient medical resources. The 2 study arms had…
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design. Reported size: 1,027 participants or records.
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