Assessing hospital cost of joint arthroplasty

Abstract

Purpose: total joint replacement is one of the most successful procedures in medicine and cost reimbursements to hospitals for the joint arthroplasty diagnosisrelated group are among the largest payments made by a Regional Health Service. Despite the popularity of these procedures, there are few high-quality costeffectiveness studies on this topic. This study evaluates the cost of total joint arthroplasty performed in a district hospital. Methods: direct and indirect costs have been measured and patient procedure pathway was analyzed subdivided into three stages: surgical procedure, inpatient care and outpatient clinic. Results: the cost of the surgical procedure stage was calculated as 3,798 euros, while that of the inpatient stage was 2,924 euros. The mean hospital costs per procedure amounted to 6,952 euros. Conclusions: although the Health Service tariffs fully reimburse the cost of providing a joint replacement, our data contribute to point out the role of hospital staff ’s organization to support sustainable improvements on health care for joint replacement surgery. Level of evidence: Level VI, single economic evaluation.