Association between volume and charges for most frequently performed ambulatory and nonambulatory surgery for bladder cancer. Is more cheaper?
OBJECTIVE
We investigated the relationship between provider volume and charges for transurethral bladder tumor resection (TURBT) and radical cystectomy in patients with bladder cancer.


METHODS
The National Inpatient Sample (1988 to 1999) of the Health Care Utilization Project, and State Ambulatory Surgery Databases for Wisconsin and Florida (2000 data set) were used for analysis. All patients with bladder cancer who had undergone radical cystectomy or TURBT as the principal procedure were identified. Hospitals and surgeons were categorized into terciles of volume based on the average number performed per year. The average hospital charge per discharge/procedure corrected to 2000 levels was calculated. One-way ANOVA with the Bonferroni correction was used to compare charges between different volume levels.


RESULTS
A total of 13,498 patients who underwent radical cystectomy and 5,954 who underwent TURBT were included in the analysis. Charges for radical cystectomy were 5,648 USD lower at high volume hospitals than at low volume hospitals (p <0.001). High volume surgeons were 2,976 USD less expensive than low volume surgeons (p =0.054). For TURBT total hospital charges at high volume hospitals were 1,013 USD more than at low volume hospitals (p <0.0001), while average total hospital charges for procedures performed by high volume surgeons were 919 USD less compared to low volume surgeons (p <0.0001).


CONCLUSIONS
High risk inpatient procedures for bladder cancer such as cystectomy, which are more influenced by systems of care, are less expensive to perform at high volume centers. Lower risk ambulatory procedures for bladder cancer, such as TURBT, which are not influenced by systems of care, may be more cost efficiently performed by high volume surgeons at low volume centers.
Departments of Urology, University of Iowa, 200 Hawkins Drive, 3RCP, Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1089, USA. badrinath-konety@uiowa.edu
Badrinath R
BR
Konety
Vibhu
V
Dhawan
Veerasathpurush
V
Allareddy
Michael A
MA
O'Donnell
D000556:Ambulatory Surgical Procedures / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015653:Cystectomy / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005249:Fees and Charges; D005251:Fees, Medical; D005431:Florida; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D017722:Hospital Charges; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D014481:United States; D001749:Urinary Bladder Neoplasms / Q000191:economics* / Q000601:surgery*; D014922:Wisconsin