Estimating the health-care costs of wound care in Ireland

Gillespie, Paddy, Carter, Laura, McIntosh, Caroline, & Gethin, Georgina. (2019). Estimating the health-care costs of wound care in Ireland. Journal of Wound Care, 28(6), 324-330. doi:10.12968/jowc.2019.28.6.324

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the cost of wound care to the Irish health-care system.Methods: A bottom-up, prevalence-based analysis was undertaken using a decision analytic model to estimate costs. Health-care resource activity was identified from a recently published study from the UK and was valued using unit cost data for Ireland.Results: The base case analysis estimated the total annual health-care cost of wound care to be (sic)629,064,198 (95% Confidence interval (CI): (sic)452,673,358 to (sic)844,087,124), accounting for 5% (95% CI: 3% to 6%) of total public health expenditure in Ireland in 2013.The average cost per patient was (sic)3,941 ( 95% CI: (sic)2,836 to (sic)5,287). However, this study is subject to many limitations and plausible changes in the model's inputs showed that the total annual health-care cost of wound care could range from (sic)281,438,970 to (sic)844,316,912.Conclusion: Caring for wounds places a substantial burden on the Irish health-care system. In light of growing pressures to finance an already resource-constrained health-care system, these results provide useful information for those charged with future wound care service design and provision in Ireland and elsewhere.

Publisher

Mark Allen Healthcare

Rights

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland

cbn

Collections

Nursing and Midwifery (Scholarly Articles)