Impact of a Make-A-Wish experience on healthcare utilization.
Pediatr Res
; 85(5): 634-638, 2019 04.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-30385853
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
To evaluate the impact of receiving a wish from the Make-A-WishR Foundation on (1) patient healthcare utilization and (2) savings benefit measures. STUDYDESIGN:
Make-A-WishR arranges experiences, or "wishes," to children with progressive, life-threatening, or life-limiting illness. A retrospective, case-control analysis was performed comparing patients who received or did not receive a wish and associated impact on healthcare utilization and costs across 2 years. Healthcare utilization was defined as visits to primary, urgent, emergent care, and planned/unplanned inpatient hospitalizations. We defined wish savings benefit as a decline in the cost of care from years 1 to 2, which exceeded the average cost of a wish in 2016, $10,130.RESULTS:
From 2011 to 2016, 496 Nationwide Children's Hospital patients received a wish. We matched these patients to 496 controls based on age, gender, disease category, and disease complexity. Patients who received a wish were 2.5 and 1.9 times more likely to have fewer unplanned hospital admissions and emergency department visits, respectively. These decreases were associated with a higher likelihood (2.3-fold and 2.2-fold greater odds) of the wish achieving a savings benefit compared to hospital charges.CONCLUSIONS:
Participation in the Make-A-WishR program may provide children quality of life relief while reducing hospital visits and healthcare expenditures.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Pediatrics
/
Quality of Life
/
Patient Acceptance of Health Care
/
Charities
/
Critical Illness
/
Hospitalization
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Observational_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Child
/
Child, preschool
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Language:
En
Journal:
Pediatr Res
Year:
2019
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States