ECP Programme Saves Close to $105,000 in Hospital Admissions Avoided

Health   |   July 9, 2018

More than 200 participants have enrolled in a pilot programme that targets people with chronic non-communicable diseases like diabetes, asthma/COPD, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension.
 
The update on the Enhanced Care Pilot, which has been running since February 2017, was included in the Ministerial Statement by Health Minister Kim Wilson, who said 88 participants have completed a full year within the programme.
 
“The annual cost of the ECP has been $672,540 for a full year,” said Ms Wilson.
 
“This is an average cost of $3,265 per participant. And in that one year participants’ overall measurements for cholesterol, blood pressure and body weight were improved by the enhanced care interventions.
 
“Most significantly, participants enrolled in the programme had substantial reductions in their use of the emergency department and in hospital admissions. Emergency visits dropped by 50 percent, from 178 to 88; and hospital admissions dropped 44 percent, from 41 to 23.
 
“This means that the health system saved over $68,000 in emergency visits in avoided emergency room visits; and close to $105,000 in avoided hospital admissions.
 
“These results are similar to those of the hospital-based sister-programme, the Patient-Centred Medical Home, and we are very pleased to see these programmes prove successful.”
 
Ms Wilson also said that she was proud that the “bipartisan genesis of these programmes which proves how much good we can achieve when we share a vision for healthcare”.
 
“The groundwork for these programmes preceded the previous Government; and they had the tenacity to implement them. In turn, we have been pleased to continue the programmes and look to expand them further given their proven success,” said Ms Wilson.
 
“This is the way we must work on health reform, Mr Speaker. With a unified vision, shared goals and for the benefit of all of Bermuda.”
 
Seeing the success of these programme as early grass-shoots of what we can achieve in reforming our health financing, gives me great hope, Mr Speaker. Hope that we will be able to bring these full reforms to fruition. Hope that better, more affordable health coverage is within our reach. And hope that the precedent we’ve established of shared goals and vision will bring us more successes like this one.