Retrospective incremental cost analysis of a hospital-based COPD Disease Management Programme in Sweden

This paper reports on a retrospective analysis of hospital-based healthcare costs associated with the management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). During the second half of 2001, Simrishamn Hospital, Sweden, implemented a structured Disease Management Programme (DMP) for COPD and a total of 784 patients with COPD, enrolled in the DMP, were included in the analysis. The goal was to reduce the number of clinical events, such as severe exacerbations by early intervention, aggressive drug treatment, specialists easy available for advice, improved support for smoking cessation, increased number of scheduled follow-ups and closer tracking of high-risk COPD patients. The hospital administrative system provided data on resource consumption, such as outpatient care, inpatient care and drugs and unit cost, used in the economic analysis. The total cost of COPD drugs doubled (from €14,133 to €30,855 per year) as did the total number of outpatient visits (from 580 to 996 visits per year). The number of hospitalizations for acute COPD exacerbations and COPD with acute lower respiratory infection decreased from 67 to 25 per year. Total COPD-related healthcare costs decreased. The results presented here support the hypothesis that a COPD DMP can offer substantial overall direct cost savings.