1. Cost-savings of short stay sleeve gastrectomy and walk-in hydration clinic versus conventional inpatient care.
- Author
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Cheng S, Lee PC, Sim JXL, Tan AS, Ng CLW, Foo AXY, Abdullah HRB, Tan JTH, Ong HS, and Lim CH
- Subjects
- Humans, Length of Stay, Inpatients, Hospitalization, Patient Readmission, Gastrectomy, Postoperative Complications, Retrospective Studies, Treatment Outcome, Laparoscopy, Obesity, Morbid surgery
- Abstract
Objective: We aim to evaluate the cost-saving of the short stay ward (SSW) versus conventional inpatient care following sleeve gastrectomy (LSG). We also compared the readmission rates pre- and post-inception of the intravenous hydration clinic and analyzed the cost-savings., Methods: Patients who underwent LSG between December 2021 to March 2022 with SSW care were compared with standard inpatient care. Total costs were analyzed using univariate analysis. With a separate cohort of patients, 30-day readmission rates in the 12-months preceding and following implementation of the IV hydration clinic and associated cost-savings were evaluated., Results: After matching on the propensity score to within ± 0.1, 20-subjects pairs were retained. The total cost per SSW-subject was significantly lower at $13,647.81 compared to $15,565.27 for conventional inpatient care (p = 0.0302). Lower average ward charges ($667.76 vs $1371.34, p < 0.0001), lower average daily treatment fee per case ($235.68 vs $836.54, p < 0.0001), and lower average laboratory investigation fee ($612.31 vs $797.21, p < 0.0001) accounted for the difference in costs between the groups. Thirty-day readmission rate reduced from 8.9 to 1.8% after implementation of the hydration clinic (p < 0.01) with decreased 30-day readmission cost (S$96,955.57 vs. S$5910.27, p < 0.01)., Conclusion: SSW for LSG is cost-effective and should be preferred to inpatient management. Walk-in hydration clinics significantly reduced readmission rates and result in tremendous cost-savings., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)
- Published
- 2023
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