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Major trauma: the unseen financial burden to trauma centres, a descriptive multicentre analysis.
- Source :
-
Australian Health Review . 2014, Vol. 38 Issue 1, p30-37. 8p. 6 Charts. - Publication Year :
- 2014
-
Abstract
- Objective. This research examines the existing funding model for in-hospital trauma patient episodes in New South Wales (NSW), Australia and identifies factors that cause above-average treatment costs. Accurate information on the treatment costs of injury is needed to guide health-funding strategy and prevent inadvertent underfunding of specialist trauma centres, which treat a high trauma casemix. Methods. Admitted trauma patient data provided by 12 trauma centres were linked with financial data for 2008-09. Actual costs incurred by each hospital were compared with state-wide Australian Refined Diagnostic Related Groups (AR-DRG) average costs. Patient episodes where actual cost was higher than AR-DRG cost allocation were examined. Results. There were 16 693 patients at a total cost of AU$178.7 million. The total costs incurred by trauma centres were $14.7 million above the NSW peer-group average cost estimates. There were 10 AR-DRG where the total cost variance was greater than $500 000. The AR-DRG with the largest proportion of patients were the upper limb injury categories, many of whom had multiple body regions injured and/or a traumatic brain injury (P < 0.001). Conclusions. AR-DRG classifications do not adequately describe the trauma patient episode and are not commensurate with the expense of trauma treatment. A revision of AR-DRG used for trauma is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *WOUND care
*THERAPEUTICS
*TRAUMA centers
*AGE distribution
*ANALYSIS of variance
*ECONOMIC aspects of diseases
*EMERGENCY medical services
*INFORMATION storage & retrieval systems
*MEDICAL databases
*RESEARCH methodology
*MEDICAL cooperation
*RESEARCH
*RESEARCH funding
*SEX distribution
*U-statistics
*COST analysis
*DATA analysis software
*DESCRIPTIVE statistics
*ECONOMICS
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 01565788
- Volume :
- 38
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Australian Health Review
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 94334010
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1071/AH13061