Estimating the cost of outpatient hospital care.

Hospital services can be divided into inpatient, outpatient and non-patient areas; outpatient care can be further subdivided into emergency room care, general and special clinic care, day procedures and non-admitted day/night care. Using 1992-93 Statistics Canada data on expenditures and outpatient activity from the Part One form for 29 Alberta hospitals, we estimated the average cost of each of the four outpatient areas. The estimated cost per visit was $183 for clinic visits, $166 for day/night care, $69 per emergency visit and $627 per day procedure. These estimates can be used in cost-effectiveness studies and, if supplemented with outpatient case weights and volumes, in provincial funding systems.