Adding value through healthcare resource use assessment

Review of care pathways and development of a resource cost study to demonstrate potential value and cost effectiveness of a new treatment

The challenge

Our client’s new subcutaneously (SC) administered therapy was anticipated to reduce resource use compared to currently available intravenously (IV) administered therapies in the same indication. As no published data existed on resource use for current IV treatments in that therapy area in the UK hospital setting, the challenge was to capture the time and resource use for the IV treatments and compare them to anticipated costs for the new SC therapy, to populate a UK cost effectiveness model.

The solution

We designed and conducted an online questionnaire-based study to capture the time and healthcare resource use associated with the preparation and administration of IV and SC treatments in the UK hospital setting. A pilot audit with 20 pharmacists informed the study design, and a total of 80 oncology nurses and 20 pharmacists completed the online survey.

Key results

We clearly demonstrated that SC therapy was associated with less resource use (in terms of both healthcare professionals’ time and consumables) than the currently used IV treatments; this therefore suggested that the new SC treatment would reduce capacity constraints of National Health Service (NHS) staff and result in resource cost savings compared with currently available treatments.

Value to the client

These data enabled a micro-costing study of these treatments and the results were then used in a submission to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) as part of the overall value argument for the product, as well as supporting product positioning and as part of the core value communication strategy.