Human resource costs and patient time affected by the delivery of chemotherapy and neutropenia management

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

6060 Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate human resource costs and patient time associated with the delivery of chemotherapy and management of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia (CIN). Methods: 400 medical professionals were surveyed regarding human resource time associated with medical tasks, and 189 patients were surveyed regarding time and activities affected by medical visits across 20 community oncology practices. Results: Results [mean (standard deviation)] showed chemotherapy and CIN-related medical visits involve numerous types of professionals (X = 10 per practice) who execute multiple medical tasks (X = 230 per practice), resulting in substantial human resource time and expense to the practice (e.g. 1 day of chemotherapy X = 4.23(1.48) hrs, $152.55($65.89); mid-cycle lab visit X = 2.09(1.05) hrs, $48.62($28.22); 5 days of IV antibiotics X = 15.7(6.1) hrs, $415.9($213.6); 10 days of filgrastim X = 24.4(11.1) hrs, $579.30($292.60); 1 day of pegfilgrastim X = 2.40(1.12) hrs, $57.06($30.94). Furthermore, results showed that even relatively simple medical visits resulted in large disruptions of patient time and life activities before, during, and after the visit (e.g. 1 day of chemotherapy ′X = 8.19(3.93) hrs; mid-cycle lab visit X= 2.27(0.92) hrs; 5 days of IV antibiotics X = 16.31(4.92) hrs; 10 days of Filgrastim X = 23.2(9.01) hrs; 1 day of pegfilgrastim X = 2.36(1.44) hrs). Sensitivity analysis demonstrated that as rates of severe CIN increase, human resource costs and patient burden increase. At relatively high rates of CIN, prophylactic use of growth factors was predicted to be less burdensome to patients and more cost effective in terms of human resource costs. Conclusions: These data are important for understanding the cost implications of delivering chemotherapy in the community oncology setting. These data are also important for understanding the burden multiple medical visits place on patients and their caregivers and may help guide the creation of supportive care strategies that minimize unnecessary patient and caregiver burden. Author Disclosure Employment or Leadership Consultant or Advisory Stock Ownership Honoraria Research Funding Expert Testimony Other Remuneration Amgen Amgen Amgen