title: Differences in hospital length-of-stay, charges, and mortality in congestive heart failure patients.
abstract: The aim of this study was to demonstrate differences in hospitalization outcomes including length-of-stay (LOS), charges, and mortality in congestive heart failure patients using the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project dataset. Hospitalizations with International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, clinical modification (ICD-9-CM) codes for congestive heart failure were extracted from a 10% random Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project sample to yield 19,693 hospitalizations between January 1 and December 31, 1997. Mean hospital charges were $11,688 and mean LOS was 5.83 days. The overall in-hospital mortality rate was 4.7%. Both LOS and hospital charges were higher in urban compared with rural hospitals (p< or =0.05). LOS and charges also increased with hospital size (p< or =0.05). Among patient characteristics, patient health status significantly affected LOS, charges, and mortality. Privately insured/health maintenance organization patients had 9% shorter LOS than Medicare patients, and Medicaid patients had 6.6% lower charges and 42% lower mortality than Medicare patients (p< or =0.05). Other significant predictors of study outcome variables included age, gender, race, hospital region, and hospital experience.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Systems and Policy, West Virginia University School of Pharmacy, PO Box 9510, Morgantown, WV 26506-9510, USA. ajoshi@hsc.wvu.edu
authors.forename: Ashish V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Joshi
authors.forename: Anna O
authors.initials: AO
authors.lastname: D'Souza
authors.forename: S Suresh
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Madhavan
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000191:economics* / Q000401:mortality*; D017722:Hospital Charges; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006761:Hospitals / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology