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Abstract Background In hospitals, catheter acquired urinary tract infection causes significant resource waste and discomfort among admitted patients. An intervention for reducing indwelling catheterisations - No-CAUTI - was trialled across four hospitals in New South Wales, Australia. No-CAUTI includes: train-the-trainer workshops, site champions, compliance audits, and point prevalence surveys. The trial showed reductions on usual care catheterisation rates at 4- and 9-month post-intervention. This result was statistically non-significant; and post-intervention catheterisation rates rebounded between 4 and 9 months. However, No-CAUTI showed statistically significant catheterisation decreases for medical wards, female patients and for short-term catheterisations. This study presents a budget impact analysis of a projected five year No-CAUTI roll out across New South Wales public hospitals, from the cost perspective of the New South Wales Ministry of Health. Methods Budget forecasts were made for five year roll outs of: i) No-CAUTI; and ii) usual care, among all public hospitals in New South Wales hosting overnight stays (n=180). The roll out design maintains intervention effectiveness with ongoing workshops, quality audits, and hospital surveys. Forecasts of catheterisations, procedures and treatments were modelled on No-CAUTI trial observations. Costs were sourced from trial records, the Medical Benefits Scheme, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and public wage awards. Cost and parameter uncertainties were considered with sensitivity scenarios. Results The estimated five-year No-CAUTI roll-out cost was $1.5 million. It had an overall budget saving of $640,000 due to reductions of 100,100 catheterisations, 33,300 urine tests and 6,700 antibiotics administrations. Non-Metropolitan hospitals had a net saving of $1.2 million, while Metropolitan hospitals had a net cost of $0.54 million. Conclusions Compared to usual care, NO-CAUTI is expected to realise overall budget savings and decreases in catheterisations over five years. These findings allow a consideration of the affordability of a wide implementation. Trial registration Registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ( ACTRN12617000090314 ). First registered 17 January 2017, retrospectively. First enrolment, 15/11/2016.

Abstract Background Urinary catheters are useful among hospital patients for allowing urinary flows and preparing patients for surgery. However, urinary infections associated with catheters cause significant patient discomfort and burden hospital resources. A nurse led intervention aiming to reduce inpatient catheterisation rates was recently trialled among adult overnight patients in four New South Wales hospitals. It included: ‘train-the trainer’ workshops, site champions, compliance audits and promotional materials. This study is the ‘in-trial’ cost-effectiveness analysis, conducted from the perspective of the New South Wales Ministry of Health. Methods The primary outcome variable was catheterisation rates. Catheterisation and procedure/treatment data were collected in three point prevalence patient surveys: pre-intervention (n = 1630), 4-months (n = 1677), and 9-months post-intervention (n = 1551). Intervention costs were based on trial records while labour costs were gathered from wage awards. Incremental cost effectiveness ratios were calculated for 4- and 9-months post-intervention and tested with non-parametric bootstrapping. Sensitivity scenarios recalculated results after adjusting costs and parameters. Results The trial found reductions in catheterisations across the four hospitals between preintervention (12.0 % (10.4 − 13.5 %), n = 195) and the 4- (9.9 % (8.5 − 11.3 %), n = 166 ) and 9- months (10.2 % (8.7 − 11.7 %) n = 158) post-intervention points. The trend was statistically non-significant (p = 0.1). Only one diagnosed CAUTI case was observed across the surveys. However, statistically and clinically significant decreases in catheterisation rates occurred for medical and critical care wards, and among female patients and short-term catheterisations. Incremental cost effectiveness ratios at 4-months and 9-months post-intervention were $188 and $264. Bootstrapping found reductions in catheterisations at positive costs over at least 72 % of iterations. Sensitivity scenarios showed that cost effectiveness was most responsive to changes in catheterisation rates. Conclusions Analysis showed that the association between the intervention and changes in catheterisation rates was not statistically significant. However, the intervention resulted in statistically significant reductions for subgroups including among short-term catheterisations and female patients. Cost-effectiveness analysis showed that reductions in catheterisations were most likely achieved at positive cost. Trial Registration Registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12617000090314). First hospital enrolment, 15/11/2016; last hospital enrolment, 8/12/2016.

Abstract Background Clinical practice guidelines and policies direct community mental health services to provide preventive care to address chronic disease risks, however, such care is infrequently provided in routine consultations. An alternative model of care is to appoint a clinician to the dedicated role of offering and providing preventive care in an additional consultation: the ‘specialist clinician’ model. Economic evaluations of models of care are needed to determine the cost of adhering to guidelines and policies, and to inform pragmatic service delivery decisions. This study is an economic evaluation of the specialist clinician model; designed to achieve policy concordant preventive care delivery. Methods A retrospective analysis of the incremental costs, cost-effectiveness, and budget impact of a ‘specialist preventive care clinician’ (an occupational therapist) was conducted in a randomised controlled trial, where participants were randomised to receive usual care; or usual care plus the offer of an additional preventive care consultation with the specialist clinician. The study outcome was client acceptance of referrals to two free telephone-based chronic disease prevention services. This is a key care delivery outcome mandated by the local health district policy of the service. The base case analysis assumed the mental health service cost perspective. A budget impact analysis determined the annual budget required to implement the model of care for all clients of the community mental health service over 5 years. Results There was a significantly greater increase from baseline to follow-up in the proportion of intervention participants accepting referrals to both telephone services, compared to usual care. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was $347 per additional acceptance of a referral (CI: $263–$494). The annual budget required to implement the model of care for all prospective clients was projected to be $711,446 over 5-years; resulting in 2616 accepted referrals. Conclusions The evaluation provides key information regarding the costs for the mental health service to adhere to policy targets, indicating the model of care involved a low per client cost whilst increasing key preventive care delivery outcomes. Additional modelling is required to further explore its economic benefits. Trial registration ACTRN12616001519448. Registered 3 November 2016, https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=371709 .

Abstract Background The aim of this systematic literature review is to identify and critique full economic evaluations of interventions for high risk young people with the purpose of informing the design of future rigorous economic evaluations of such intervention programs. Methods A PRISMA compliant search of the literature between 2000 and April 2018 was conducted to identify full economic evaluations of youth focussed interventions for at risk young people. Duplicates were removed and two researchers independently screened the article titles and abstracts according to PICOS criteria for exclusion and inclusion. The remaining full text articles were assessed for eligibility and a quality assessment of the included articles was conducted using the Drummond checklist. Results The database, grey literature and hand searches located 488 studies of interventions for at risk young people. After preliminary screening of titles and abstracts, 104 studies remained for full text examination and 29 empirical studies containing 32 separate economic evaluations were judged eligible for inclusion in the review. These comprised 13 cost-benefit analyses (41%), 17 cost-effectiveness analyses (53%), one cost-utility analysis (3%) and a social return on investment (3%). Three main methodological challenges were identified: 1. attribution of effects; 2. measuring and valuing outcomes; and 3. identifying relevant costs and consequences. Conclusions A cost-benefit analysis would best capture the dynamic nature of a multi-component intervention for high risk young people, incorporating broader intersectoral outcomes and enabling measurement of more domains of risk. Prospective long-term data collection and a strong study design that incorporates a control group contribute to the quality of economic evaluation. Extrapolation of impact into the future is important for this population, in order to account for the time lag in effect of many impacts and benefits arising from youth interventions.