The need for a broad perspective when assessing value-for-money for out-of-hours primary care.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Out-of-hours primary care (OOH-PC) has emerged as a promising solution to improve efficiency, accessibility, and quality of care and to reduce the strain on emergency departments. As this modality gains traction in diverse healthcare settings, it is increasingly important to fully assess its societal value-for-money and conduct thorough process evaluations. However, current economic evaluations mostly emphasise direct- and short-term effect measures, thus lacking a broader societal perspective.

Aim

This study offers a comprehensive overview of current effect measures in OOH-PC evaluations and proposes additional measures from the evaluation of integrated care programmes.

Approach and development

First, we systematically identified the effect measures from p

SUBMITTER: Phiri J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11464846 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature