It costs an average of $7,000 to treat a patient admitted to a Canadian hospital for at least one night, according to a major report that found about half of all hospital spending goes toward patient stays.
Canadians who land in the hospital with a heart attack, stroke or other circulatory disease account for the highest percentage of inpatient costs - at 19 per cent, with an average per-stay cost of $11,260 each - from April, 2004, to April, 2005, a report released yesterday by the Canadian Institute for Health Information shows.
The cost of hospital stays totalled just over $17-billion in that time period, excluding Quebec.
The report marks the first time the institute has been able to provide national data on specific costs for a variety of medical conditions and by length of hospital stay.
The results should help health-care organizations across the country assess their services and determine whether they should be placing greater emphasis on certain prevention programs, said Francine Anne Roy, director of health resources information at CIHI.
"Having this type of information can help prioritize where you're going to work on," she said.
As well as excluding Quebec, the report does not include costs associated with day surgery or other procedures in which the patient did not stay overnight.
After circulatory diseases, the report found that injuries, such as falls or poisonings, accounted for about 10 per cent of all inpatient costs. That finding is particularly significant because most injuries are preventable.
Mental and behavioural disorders are among the top 10 most expensive conditions to treat, accounting for nearly 7 per cent of all inpatient costs in acute-care facilities, according to the report.
Researchers examined the volume, or total number, of hospital admissions for a particular condition, as well as the patients' length of stay, in order to determine the overall inpatient costs.
For instance, while heart attacks aren't the most expensive medical condition to treat, circulatory diseases accounted for the largest proportion of inpatient costs because of the volume of patient admissions.
The most expensive medical conditions to treat, according to the report, are congenital malformations and other chromosomal abnormalities present at birth, which often require corrective surgery or lead to complications. Those problems cost an average of $14,000 per hospital stay.
The institute plans to conduct follow-up reports in a few years to assess whether the cost to treat certain conditions rises or drops, to determine national trends, Ms. Roy said.
The report also found that patients admitted to the hospital for one condition often have an underlying problem or complication that significantly increases the cost of their stay. For instance, it costs an average of about $7,700 to treat a patient admitted to hospital for a heart attack (as opposed to a stroke or other circulatory condition). But if that person suffers complications or has an underlying medical condition, such as diabetes or pneumonia, the cost increases to $11,043.
17
