title: Cost-effectiveness of referrals to high-volume hospitals: an analysis based on a probabilistic Markov model for hip fracture surgeries.
abstract: Previous studies suggest that German hospitals that perform a high volume of hip fracture surgeries have a lower mortality rate and shorter length of stay than low-volume hospitals. The goal of this paper was to determine the long-term cost-effectiveness (over 20 years) of referring hip fracture surgeries to high-volume hospitals, based on data from previous studies. From a societal perspective, the cost-effectiveness ratio was 15,530 Euro per QALY (quality-adjusted life year) (95% confidence interval 9,864-33,048 Euro), while total annual costs to the statutory health insurance amounted up to 19.6 million Euro. The referral of hip fracture surgeries to high-volume hospitals is thus likely to be cost-effective in Germany.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health Economics and Clinical Epidemiology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany. afschin.gandjour@uk-koeln.de
authors.forename: Afschin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gandjour
authors.forename: Eva-Julia
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Weyler
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D005858:Germany; D006620:Hip Fractures / Q000191:economics* / Q000601:surgery; D006761:Hospitals / Q000145:classification; D006801:Humans; D008390:Markov Chains; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D012017:Referral and Consultation