Removal of financial incentives was associated with an immediate decline in performance on quality measures. In part, the decline probably reflected changes in EMR documentation, but declines on measures involving laboratory testing suggest that incentive removal also changed the care delivered.
The techniques of cost utility analysis (CUA) were used to evaluate the treatment of gallstone disease by open and laparoscopic cholecystectomy and by extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (ESWL). The application of the techniques in this context raised three methodological questions which are not satisfactorily resolved in the literature. The first is whether an ex ante or ex post perspective is best adopted for the measurement of quality of life (QoL). The second is the method for converting a short term deterioration in QoL followed by full health into QALYs and the reliability of the methods available. The third is the issue of indirect costs which, in the context of a temporary disease state, cannot be easily avoided. The economic evaluation found laparoscopic cholecystectomy to be generally superior than the competitor technologies (entailing lower costs and better outcomes). However, the results were sensitive to assumptions about the perspective for measuring benefits and the inclusion of indirect costs.
Objective To assess the efficacy, acceptability, and safety of a topical alkane vapocoolant in reducing pain during intravenous cannulation in adults.Design Randomised double blind placebo controlled trial.Setting Emergency department of a metropolitan teaching hospital.Participants 201 adult patients (54% male), mean (SD) age 58.2 (19.5) years, who required intravenous cannulation.Interventions Less than 15 seconds before cannulation, the skin area was sprayed with either water (control, n=98) or vapocoolant (intervention, n=103), from a distance of 12 cm for 2 seconds. The intervention spray was a blend of propane, butane, and pentane.Main outcome measures Pain with cannulation and discomfort with spray, measured with a 100 mm visual analogue scale.Results Groups did not differ significantly in age, sex, indication for or site of cannulation, cannula size, or who cannulated the patient (P>0.05). Median (interquartile range) pain scores for cannulation in the control and intervention groups were 36 (19-51) and 12 (5-40) mm, respectively (P<0.001), and 59 (60%) and 33 (32%) reported pain scores ≥30 mm (P<0.001). Scores for spray discomfort also differed significantly (P<0.001) because of skewing to the right within the intervention group. The median discomfort scores, however, were 0 mm in both groups. Success rates for first cannulation attempt did not differ between groups (P=0.39). Thirty four (39%) and 62 (62%) patients said they would choose the spray they received for analgesia in the future (P=0.002). At follow-up at five days, two patients in the intervention group reported transient skin redness.Conclusions Topical alkane vapocoolant spray is effective, acceptable, and safe in reducing pain with peripheral intravenous cannulation in adults in the emergency department.Trial registration Australian Clinical Trials ACTRN12607000470493.
Traditional CEA, through the measurement of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), is constrained because of a "QALY trap." If, for example, saving the life of a person with paraplegia is equally valuable as saving the life of a person without paraplegia, then current QALY methods force us to conclude that curing paraplegia brings no benefit. Basing cost-effectiveness measurement on societal values rather than QALYs may allow us to better capture public rationing preferences, thereby escaping the QALY trap. CEA can accommodate a wider range of such societal values about fairness in its measurements by amending its methodology.
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