Is day care equivalent to inpatient care for active rheumatoid arthritis? Randomised controlled clinical and economic evaluation

This is a critical abstract of an economic evaluation that meets the criteria for inclusion on NHS EED. Each abstract contains a brief summary of the methods, the results and conclusions followed by a detailed critical assessment on the reliability of the study and the conclusions drawn. Day care and inpatient care for patients with uncomplicated active rheumatoid arthritis have equivalent clinical outcome with a small difference in overall resource cost in favour of day care. It is uncertain whether the potential savings from implementing a day care facility and freeing beds would be realised in practice.