Journal
HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
Volume 47, Issue 4, Pages 1679-1698Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-6773.2011.01367.x
Keywords
Program evaluation; administrative data uses; evaluation design and research; observational data; quasi-experiments
Funding
- Department of Health in England
- Partnership for Older People Projects (POPPs) program
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Objective To test whether two hospital-avoidance interventions altered rates of hospital use: intermediate care and integrated care teams. Data Sources/Study Setting Linked administrative data for England covering the period 2004 to 2009. Study Design This study was commissioned after the interventions had been in place for several years. We developed a method based on retrospective analysis of person-level data comparing health care use of participants with that of prognostically matched controls. Data Collection/Extraction Methods Individuals were linked to administrative datasets through a trusted intermediary and a unique patient identifier. Principal Findings Participants who received the intermediate care intervention showed higher rates of unscheduled hospital admission than matched controls, whereas recipients of the integrated care team intervention showed no difference. Both intervention groups showed higher rates of mortality than did their matched controls. Conclusions These are potentially powerful techniques for assessing impacts on hospital activity. Neither intervention reduced admission rates. Although our analysis of hospital utilization controlled for a wide range of observable characteristics, the difference in mortality rates suggests that some residual confounding is likely. Evaluation is constrained when performed retrospectively, and careful interpretation is needed.
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