IBenC is a cross-European research project and stands for Identifying best practices for care-dependent elderly by Benchmarking Costs and outcomes of community care.

The aim of IBenC is to identify best practices in community care for care-dependent elderly people, by benchmarking the cost-effectiveness of community care delivery systems in Europe. The project will provide comprehensive insight into the functioning of the European community care system by taking into account patient outcomes, costs of care, organizational performances, and the structure and care processes of care providing organisations.

*Background*
The need for cost effective health systems in Europe is imperative in the context of an increasing demand for health care by growing numbers of elderly people and a shrinking working force. Many health care systems are changing and looking for mechanisms to ensure, measure and improve the quality of care. However it is unclear which models of care delivery are the most cost-effective. To enable lower public spending and advance the economic efficiency of community care organisations, policymakers need information on which type of community care delivery provides best outcomes against reasonable costs.

*Aim*
To identify best practices in community care delivery for care-dependent elderly, by benchmarking the cost-effectiveness of health care systems, taking into account costs of care, quality of care and organisation of European community care organisations.

*Design*
Within a prospective longitudinal design, a novel method to benchmark community care organisations will be developed: quality and cost of community care will be combined into one measure. Based on a standardized instrument, the Resident Assessment Instrument for Home Care (interRAI-HC), this summary measure for organisation performance, based on quality indicators, and costs of care will be developed. Within the project, the interRAI-HC will be validated for costs of care assessments from a societal perspective. To enable an in-depth interpretation of best performing practices, the contexts and characteristics of community care organisations will be studied rigorously.

*Impact*
The novel method for benchmarking community care practices on macro and meso levels on costs and quality of care will improve insight into the cost effectiveness of European health care delivery, and provides an objective method to identify best practices. In addition, the benchmark method will be suitable for (inter)national cost of care comparisons and will be applicable in the future for benchmarking care models in other care settings as well. The IBenC study will explore the feasibility of the development of an online tool to benchmark cost-effectiveness of health care organisations based on their organisational characteristics. Such a tool can provide easy access to health care policy makers and health care providers to the generated knowledge on cost-effectiveness and organisation of European community care.

• Prof. Dr. Gernold Frank (Projektleitung)
• Prof. Dr. phil. Jürgen Radel (Projektleitung)

• Prof. Dr. Vjenka Garms-Homolová (Projektmitarbeiter_in)
• Philipp Peusch (Projektmitarbeiter_in)
• Jacqueline Schoen (Projektmitarbeiter_in)

Europäische Union (EU)

• Universitá Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy
• KU Leuven, Belgium
• Lanspitali University Hospital, Iceland
• Terveyden Ja Hyvinvoinnin Laitos, Finland
• European Health Management Association, Ireland
• Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin
• Stichting GGZ InGeest, Netherlands
• VU University Medical Center, Netherlands

FP7-HEALTH-2012-INNOVATION-1

http://www.ibenc.eu