What considerations did the committee make when assessing the cost of home-based rehabilitation?
The committee considered that home-based rehabilitation would have similar hospitalisation rates as hospital-based rehabilitation, and therefore admission costs would not differ greatly between the 2 interventions. The committee were concerned with the small sample size of this study (n=30), that there was a large age difference of patients in each arm, and that no health outcomes were reported, and therefore this study was assessed as partially applicable with very serious limitations. The committee also considered that this would require limited NHS resource if such Chronic Heart Failure Rehabilitation programmes were implemented. Overall, the committee did not consider that home-based rehabilitation would be more costly than hospital/community rehabilitation as health professionals are not required to visit patients in their homes, and in some instances could be less costly.