Health Foundation supported research published in the Journal of Health Economics

The research upon which the Health Foundation’s “Do quality improvements in primary care reduce secondary care costs?” report was based has now been published online in the September 2011 issue of Journal of Health Economics.

The article “Does better disease management in primary care reduce hospital costs?” applies cross-sectional and panel data methods to a database of 5 million patients in 8,000 English general practices to examine whether better primary care management of 10 chronic diseases is associated with reduced hospital costs.

It found that only primary care performance in stroke care is associated with lower hospital costs and that the 10 per cent improvement in the general practice quality of stroke care between 2004/5 and 2007/8 reduced 2007/8 hospital expenditure by about £130 million in England. The cost savings are due mainly to reductions in emergency admissions and outpatient visits, rather than to lower costs for patients treated in hospital or to reductions in elective admissions.

The research was undertaken by the University of York and Imperial College Business School and the authors are Hugh Gravelle, Stephen Martin, Nigel Rice and Peter Smith.

Download the article: Does Better Disease Management in Primary Care Reduce Hospital Costs?