Reducing hospitalizations: Implementation of CADD pumps in infusion clinic at a Los Angeles safety net hospital.

Abstract

e18648 Background: Computerized ambulatory drug delivery (CADD) pumps introduced in the 1980s made it possible to move infusion delivery from the hospital to the home. At Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, hundreds of scheduled chemotherapy admissions occur annually. The procurement and implementation of CADD pumps was a collaborative effort with members of pharmacy, nursing, physicians and administration. The implementation of CADD pumps for home chemotherapy demonstrated a cost-savings by decreasing the number of inpatient hospital days required for scheduled chemotherapy admissions. Methods: The first outpatient chemotherapy infusion by CADD pump began on 12/5/2017. Records from 12/5/2017 through 12/4/2018 (365 days) were reviewed to assess the benefit of CADD pumps, defined by inpatient hospital days avoided. Eight chemotherapy regimens were administered through outpatient CADD pumps; the equivalent number of inpatient hospital days were estimated based on inpatient hospital records between 2015 and 2017. The average number of hospital days that would have occurred inpatient per chemotherapy regimen was multiplied by the number of outpatient CADD pump chemotherapy infusions to estimate the number of inpatient hospital days avoided. Based on information provided by our hospital’s finance department, including reimbursement for inpatient and similar outpatient care, each hospital day avoided was estimated to provide $1,695 in cost-savings. On average, a typical hospitalization for infusional 5-FU chemotherapy was three days in length. Results: Over one year, 35 patients received a total of 178 outpatient CADD infusions. The average number of CADD infusions per patient was five. We estimated that 642 hospital bed days were saved over a 1-year period following the implementation of outpatient CADD pumps. With the estimate that each hospital bed day saved was valued at $1,695, we concluded a savings of $1.1 million dollars at our hospital through the implementation of CADD pumps within the first year. Conclusions: The implementation of CADD pumps for home chemotherapy demonstrated cost-savings by decreasing the number of inpatient hospital days required for scheduled chemotherapy admissions. This shift provides a superior value for the patient with equivalent treatment outpatient, spending less time in the healthcare setting, and reduced health care costs. [Table: see text]