Community acquired pneumonia and direct hospital cost.

In Turkey, there is inadequate data about the direct or indirect cost of community acquired pneumonia (CAP). This study aims to identify the clinical, laboratory, and radiological properties, direct hospital costs of CAP, and the factors that affect these costs. Grouping of the subjects and cost analysis were evaluated in accordance with Pneumonia Severity Index (PSI) and 'Turkish Thoracic Society (TTS) CAP Guideline'. 114 cases with an average age of 70.9 were analyzed retrospectively. Average hospital stay was 11.0 +/- 6.6 days. Three of the cases that appeared to be in group IIIb in accordance with TTS CAP Guideline, and that had a PSI score of 102.7 died. Average costs of medicine was 484.59 Euro, radiology costs were 65.38 Euro, laboratory costs were 329.38 Euro and the total cost was 1630.77 Euro. In group IIIb cases, costs of medicine and the total costs were higher than other groups. Radiological, laboratory and the total costs were not determined to be different among cases that did or did not conform to initial treatment guidelines (p> 0.05). There were no effect of gender and advanced age (>/= 65 years) on total cost (p> 0.05). Existence of a comorbid disease was detected to have increased the total cost (p= 0.003). Total costs according to PSI scoring were 1274.60 Euro in low-risk group, and 1929.49 Euro in high-risk group (p= 0.04). Hospital mortality due to CAP was 2.6%.