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Caring for ventilated patients in the community: a pilot study examining costs, quality of life and preferences
Author(s) -
Vick Sandra D.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
health and social care in the community
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.984
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1365-2524
pISSN - 0966-0410
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2524.1996.tb00079.x
Subject(s) - quality of life (healthcare) , medicine , health care , gerontology , nursing , economics , economic growth
This paper describes a pilot study that identifies the implications for resource use when ventilated patients are moved from hospital to the community, and pilots two generic health status survey instruments to measure quality of life experienced in the community for use in a future full evaluation. A group of 11 ventilated patients living in the community were interviewed to identify their resource use, and the SF‐36 questionnaire, EuroQol questionnaire and Patient Generated Index were used to investigate implications on quality of life and whether these measures were suitable for use in this group of patients. The main results indicate that the cost of care varies considerably between hospital and community and across patients. The quality of life measures proved inadequate, and highlighted the problems of measuring quality of life for patients with deteriorating health status. All patients much preferred home care to hospital care. A full multi‐disciplinary evaluation is required to determine an effective method of providing the care.