Efficiency and rationality in the planning of health care for people with AIDS: an application of the balance of care approach. North-East Italian Group for Planning of AIDS Health Care.

OBJECTIVE To demonstrate the application of an approach for assessing efficiency and rationality in the use of resources for the care of patients with AIDS (PWA), using data for north-east Italy. DESIGN An economic methodology, the balance of care (BoC) approach, enabled identification of scenarios for the current, planned and recommended provision of care in the study region. METHODS Data on the supply and utilization of care by PWA across four locations (inpatient care, day care, home care and sheltered accommodation) was collected for a 6-month period during 1994. The current BoC measured in care contacts across the locations was compared with a planned BoC scenario, derived from the Italian AIDS Health Plan, and a recommended BoC scenario based on a delphi expert panel judgement of the appropriate care location according to sets of hypothetical clinical and social characteristics of PWA. The cost consequences of reallocating patient contacts between the current BoC to the recommended BoC was assessed for inpatient and day care contacts. RESULTS There is an overprovision of home care in the planned BoC scenario if applied to the study region. The cost consequences of a shift of care contacts according to the recommended scenario results in a potential cost reduction of 9.2% compared with the current scenario, and hence an expected efficiency improvement. CONCLUSION The BoC approach can be applied to improve the efficiency and rationality of resource use in planning care provision for PWA.