Cost of oncological palliative care in home care service: integrative review

Abstract

Objective Investigate scientific articles related to the cost of the Home Care Service for patients undergoing oncology palliative care. Methods Integrative literature review, which included primary articles indexed in the PubMed, Scopus, Virtual Health Library (VHL), Embase, Science Direct and Scielo databases, using the descriptors: neoplasms; oncology; home care; palliative care; cost analysis; costs. Results Ten studies were included, three from the United Kingdom, three from Spain, followed by two from Italy, one from the United States of America and one from Canada. Studies have shown lower costs for home hospitalization with monitoring by healthcare teams, including when analyzing terminally ill cancer patients and disease prognosis. Conclusion It was evidenced that the costs of care provided to patients undergoing oncological palliative care are lower in a home environment than at a hospital level.