Treating patients at home rather than in hospital has saved the island’s healthcare system almost half-a-million dollars, according to the Bermuda Health Council (BHeC).

Home Medical Services coverage is also benefiting Bermuda Hospitals Board (BHB) patients and freeing up emergency department services, a BHB spokeswoman said.

Ricky Brathwaite, health economist at BHeC, told The Royal Gazette that $437,520 had been saved through the Home Medical Services benefit between April 2014 and March 2015.

“What we do to calculate cost savings, is take the amount it would have cost in the hospital minus the amount of money it actually cost through the units of service done in the community,” he said. “When we’ve looked at the numbers over the full year, the full fiscal year from the time it started in April 2014 through the end of March 2015, we have estimated savings of $437,520.”

However, Dr Brathwaite added that this figure did not include peritoneal dialysis, which was added in October last year, and is expected to save the system $255,000 per five patients on a yearly basis.

The Home Medical Services benefit was launched in October 2013 by BHeC and its stakeholders as part of the Standard Health Benefit; the basic package of care that every employed person and their non-employed spouse is required to have. It was made permanent after a successful six-month pilot programme that saved an estimated $100,000.

The benefit allows patients to receive specific medical procedures such as IV antibiotic therapy, wound care, catheter changes, infusion therapy and peritoneal dialysis at home. Health insurers cover the full cost as long as patients are insured and BHeC determines the procedures and fees.

“A lot of it is improving outcomes and the hope of individuals,” Dr Brathwaite said. “We’re trying to improve the ability of people to be comfortable and get the care they need, and at the same time allow for some of the resources that are being spent to be diverted to some things like prevention and other ways that we can spend our money more efficiently.”

According to Dr Brathwaite, dialysis in the hospital costs $15,801 per month, per person. At home, the cost falls to $11,545. “That’s over $4,000 in difference,” he said. “When you talk about peritoneal dialysis, it represents really what home medical services across the board have been able to do: provide convenience within the home, within a more convenient setting and provide the same quality of care.”

According to the BHB spokeswoman, their patients now “regularly benefit from Home Medical Services coverage, which is provided by community nurses and now extends access to home IV medication therapy”.

“This means that stable patients can receive their therapy at home and do not necessarily utilise costly acute inpatient beds,” she said. “It also dramatically reduces the burden on the emergency department services, where patients would regularly come into the ED several times a day while receiving these medications.”

In some cases patients can avoid the inpatient or emergency setting altogether by having their IV medications co-ordinated in the outpatient setting, she added.

• For more information on the Home Medical Services benefit visit www.bhec.bm or call BHeC on 292-6420