Health Care Utilization

5th October 20196th October 2019Immo Weichert

Referral to a psychological therapy service is associated with reduced utilisation of healthcare and sickness absence by people with common mental health problems

A paper published by the Department of Health Care Management and Policy at the University of Surrey in 2011. [1] This study looked at the impact of Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT), a programme designed to reduce disease burden to the individual and economic burden to the society of common mental health problems (CMHP).on…

2nd October 20192nd October 2019Immo Weichert

Psychiatric comorbidity increases the costs associated with medical admissions by 40%

A retrospective study published in 2018. [1] The study included 338,162 inpatient episodes discharged between 2011 and 2014 at a German university hospital. Psychiatric comorbidities were associated with an increase in hospital costs per episode of 40% and an increase of reimbursement per episode of 28%, representing marginal effects of 1344 € and 1004 €,…

2nd October 20192nd October 2019Immo Weichert

Length of hospital stay and health services use of medical inpatients with comorbid non-cognitive mental disorders

This is a literature review from 2005. [1] 23 studies on the association between non-cognitive psychiatric diseases and the use of general health care services by medical patients admitted to a general hospital were analysed. Only studies with a prospective design and with a correction for possible confounding factors were included. In most studies, only…

2nd October 20192nd October 2019Immo Weichert

Psychiatric comorbidity increases the length of stay of medical admissions

This is a paper from 1994 which has since been cited close to 200 times. [1] The authors critically reviewed 26 international and American outcome studies that assessed the effect of psychiatric comorbidity on length of stay for medical/surgical inpatients. Eighty-nine per cent of all studies with sample sizes greater than 110 and 75% of…

2nd October 20192nd October 2019Immo Weichert

Depression increases health-care costs in the first year after a heart attack by 41%

A paper from Montreal, Canada that was published in 2000. [1] The study looked at 848 1-year survivors of an acute MI who had completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) in hospital. 266 patients had BDI scores of >/=10 (30.7%), indicative of mild to moderate symptoms of depression. Total costs (out-patient physician charges plus physician…