Abstract
Background and Aims
The number of patients receiving dialysis is increasing in the United Kingdom, costing the National Health Service (NHS) over 500 million GBP annually. New personal haemodialysis systems are being developed, such as the Quanta SC+, that are smaller and simpler to use by patients while providing the clearances of conventional systems. Increasing uptake of lower intensity assistance and full self-care dialysis may provide economic benefits to the public health payer. In addition, promotion of every other day dialysis (3.5x weekly) may improve costs to the health system by helping to close the “post-weekend effect” with increased emergency department use and hospitalisations following the long interdialytic gap. As such, we aimed to describe the annual therapy costs of using SC+ in the UK for 3x weekly and 3.5x weekly dialysis regimens, both for self-care haemodialysis provided in-centre and at home in comparison to dialysis provided with conventional machines from the perspective of the health care system.
Method
Cost minimisation approach. Costs for human resources, equipment, and consumables were sourced from the dialysis machine developer (Quanta Dialysis Technologies). Other costs, such as facility expenses, dialysis-related drugs, avoided emergency department and hospitalisation events, and utilities were taken from a review of the literature. Costs are provided in 2018 GBP.
Results
Therapy provided as self-care in-centre or full self-care at home were found to have similar costs (£33,721 in-centre versus £33,836 at home for the 3x weekly regimen). Costs increased to £37,238 for self-care in-centre and £35,557 at home for the 3.5x weekly regimen. A comparator cost of £39,416 was established for dialysis provided with conventional machines in-hospital 3x weekly. For each dialysis patient, the health care system is anticipated to save £3,666 in costs associated with excess hospital stays and £2,176 in costs associated with excess emergency department visits.
Conclusion
In the UK, SC+ offers cost savings when used both for self-care in-centre and full self-care at home in comparison to dialysis provided in the clinic using conventional machines.
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