Am J Psychiatry 1978; 135:707-712
Copyright © 1978 by American Psychiatric Association
Brief versus standard hospitalization: the differential costs
J Endicott, MI Herz and M Gibbon
The authors compared the use of inpatient and day care services, number of
readmissions, use of special services, use of drugs, costs to family and
community, and differential dollar costs of three treatment
approaches--brief hospitalization followed by day care, brief
hospitalization followed by outpatient care, and standard hospitalization.
They found that, among patients who had families willing to care for them,
brief hospitalization followed by either day or outpatient care was less
expensive in terms of hospital costs and costs to the family than standard
hospitalization.
