Family Caregiver Investigation

"It costs less to care for our seniors at home." This is the prevailing assumption that underpins policy and legislation shifting the work of caregiving from institutional settings to home-based settings. Policies such as "Age in Place", "Early Hospital Discharge" and even, "Hospital to Home" are all based on this idea.  Where is the comparative cost accounting data that supports this claim? How much does it cost to operate a caregiving bed in an institutional setting? How much does it cost to operate a caregiving bed in a home-based setting? How do we measure these costs? How do we value these costs? What portion of these costs should be supported by personal financial resources? What portion of these costs should be supported by public financial resources? How do we decide the distribution of cost and responsibility?  Is a home-based caregiving operation considered part of our overall healthcare infrastructure? What is the difference in categor...

  Strategy for Patient Oriented Research funded a scoping review to learn what research had been published about evidence-based cost accounting in long-term care. Specifically, we were looking for cost accounting data about home-based long-term care for frail elders with complex needs (require caregiving 24/7). In the process of conducting that review, we developed a proposed framework for cost accounting categories that could serve across diverse caregiving settings - the operation of long-term care beds in institutional and home-based settings. We hope to one day answer the question, "What is the cost of operating a long-term care bed in an institutional and home-based setting? How do these costs compare? What are the relative costs and benefits of operating long-term care in these settings? How do we decide where to allocate resources to support these operations? How much funding needs to flow to each of these operations to sustain caregiving infrastructure?