High cost factors for leukaemia and lymphoma patients: a new analysis of costs within these diagnosis related groups.
OBJECTIVE
To determine high cost factors to help managers and clinicians to analyse the reasons of adverse costs and provide indications for financial negotiation.


METHODS
To locate high cost or long stay patients, the analysis was designed on the basis of a mixture of Weibull distributions. In this new model, the proportion of high cost patients was expressed according to the multinomial logistic regression, permitting the determination of high cost factors.


METHODS
The 1993 French reference database, constituted in the framework of the national study of DRG costs, conducted by the French Ministry of Health. The database of discharge abstracts recorded in 1993 in the Dijon public teaching hospital.


METHODS
The analyses were based on 1352 abstracts from the French reference database and 368 from the Dijon database concerning patients, aged 18 and over, suffering from leukaemia and lymphoma.


RESULTS
High cost and long stay factors were the same: number of stays, death, transfer, acute leukaemia, neutropenia, septicaemia, high dose aplastic chemotherapy, central venous catheterisation, parenteral nutrition, protected or laminar airflow room, blood transfusion, and intravenous antibiotherapy.


CONCLUSIONS
Taking into account high cost predictive factors, as shown in the case of leukaemia and lymphoma patients, would help to reduce the adverse effects of a prospective payment system.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D003953:Diagnosis-Related Groups; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D017721:Hospital Costs; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000191:economics*; D007938:Leukemia / Q000191:economics* / Q000628:therapy; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000191:economics* / Q000628:therapy; D008875:Middle Aged