A B Linné1, H Liedholm, S Jendteg, B Israelsson. 1. Department of Community Medicine, Malmö University Hospital, University of, Lund, Sweden. agneta.bjork-linne@smi.mas.lu.se
Abstract
BACKGROUND:Heart failure is a serious syndrome with a bad prognosis. Hospitalisation is common and readmittance rate is high; factors which influence the cost of care and treatment. Only scarce data on detailed patient materials regarding health care costs are known. AIMS: To describe in detail the health care costs for heart failure patients. METHODS: Costs for patients (n=108) who completed a randomised education trial were studied for 6 months after hospital discharge. Costs for hospital stay, out-patient visits, diagnostic tests and procedures, laboratory analyses and drug treatment were calculated. Official unit prices list used to reimburse providers of cross-boundary health services and prices for drugs in the Swedish Drug Compendium were employed. RESULTS: The total cost for a heart failure patient was approximately 20000 SEK (2564 US$, 7.80 SEK=1 US$) for 6 months. There was a 27-fold variation between patients. There was no relation between age or sex and cost. In decreasing order cost for hospitalisation was followed by costs for out-patient visits, diagnostic tests and procedures, laboratory analyses and drugs. CONCLUSION: Hospitalisation was the largest part of the total cost and there was a large inter-individual variation. Efforts to reduce the economic burden should be focused on hospitalisation. Due to skewed distribution, individual data must be considered in the analysis of the efforts.
RCT Entities:
BACKGROUND:Heart failure is a serious syndrome with a bad prognosis. Hospitalisation is common and readmittance rate is high; factors which influence the cost of care and treatment. Only scarce data on detailed patient materials regarding health care costs are known. AIMS: To describe in detail the health care costs for heart failurepatients. METHODS: Costs for patients (n=108) who completed a randomised education trial were studied for 6 months after hospital discharge. Costs for hospital stay, out-patient visits, diagnostic tests and procedures, laboratory analyses and drug treatment were calculated. Official unit prices list used to reimburse providers of cross-boundary health services and prices for drugs in the Swedish Drug Compendium were employed. RESULTS: The total cost for a heart failurepatient was approximately 20000 SEK (2564 US$, 7.80 SEK=1 US$) for 6 months. There was a 27-fold variation between patients. There was no relation between age or sex and cost. In decreasing order cost for hospitalisation was followed by costs for out-patient visits, diagnostic tests and procedures, laboratory analyses and drugs. CONCLUSION: Hospitalisation was the largest part of the total cost and there was a large inter-individual variation. Efforts to reduce the economic burden should be focused on hospitalisation. Due to skewed distribution, individual data must be considered in the analysis of the efforts.
Authors: Debra K Moser; Victoria Dickson; Tiny Jaarsma; Christopher Lee; Anna Stromberg; Barbara Riegel Journal: Curr Cardiol Rep Date: 2012-06 Impact factor: 2.931
Authors: Debra K Moser; Susan K Frazier; Linda Worrall-Carter; Martha J Biddle; Misook L Chung; Kyoung Suk Lee; Terry A Lennie Journal: Eur J Cardiovasc Nurs Date: 2010-07-15 Impact factor: 3.908