Stakeholder perspectives on categorizing care settings for measures of hospital- and institution-free days

Hospital-free days (HFDs) and institution-free days (IFDs) are increasingly reported in clinical trials and observational research of critically and seriously ill populations. These outcomes are patient-centered and pragmatic to measure, but definitions vary between studies. Moreover, definitions have not incorporated broad stakeholder input, in particular the views of patients and family members. While a prior engagement of a stakeholder panel confirmed the patient-centeredness of HFDs, stakeholders expressed that a binary focus on “hospital” versus “hospital-free” days may miss important information about patient and family experiences with other health care settings or services. We sought stakeholders’ perspectives to categorize days spent receiving different types of health care to guide specification of these outcomes.

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
National Institute on Aging
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute

Catherine L Auriemma, Melanie Bahti, Corinne Merlino, Bethany Sewell, Katherine R Courtright