title: [Profitability of a day hospital: analysis of activity, cost and effectiveness].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Day hospitals are an alternative to conventional hospital care. We analyzed the functioning and profitability of the day hospital of Hospital Clínico de Valladolid, Spain, in 2009. Profitability is expressed as the provision of identical health coverage at a lower cost than that generated by conventional hospital care and with adequate quality indicators.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a retrospective, observational and descriptive study of the information obtained on each patient attended in the day hospital from January 1 to December 31, 2009. We studied four quality indicators: cancellation of meetings, the rate of transfusion reactions, the out-patient rate and the satisfaction index. The estimated savings for each process was calculated as the difference in the average cost of hospitalization minus the average cost of the process in the day hospital.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The most frequent diseases were systemic and connective tissue diseases, accounting for 25.4% of the processes treated; of these, 17.1% corresponded to rheumatoid arthritis. Patient satisfaction was 93%. Meetings cancellations and the rate of transfusion reactions were 0%. The out-patient rate was 26%. Day hospital costs were 8.6% of conventional hospital costs, with savings of 78,390.69 euros.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The day hospital is cost effective due to savings compared with conventional hospitalization and has a satisfactory quality index.
authors.affiliation: Medicina de Familia y Comunitaria, Hospital Clínico de Valladolid, Valladolid, España.
authors.forename: Lili
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hernando Ortiz
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hinojosa Mena-Bernal
authors.forename: Enrique
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: González Sarmiento
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: González Guilabert
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Arana Ruiz
authors.forename: M Fe
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Muñoz Moreno
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003631:Day Care, Medical / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult