COVID-19 and hospital management costs: the Italian experience

Abstract Background This article investigates the hospital costs related to the management of COVID-19 positive patients, requiring a hospitalization (from the positivity confirmation to discharge, including rehabilitation activities). Methods A time-driven activity-based costing analysis, grounding...

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Main Authors: Emanuela Foglia (Author), Lucrezia Ferrario (Author), Fabrizio Schettini (Author), M. Beatrice Pagani (Author), Martina Dalla Bona (Author), Emanuele Porazzi (Author)
Format: Book
Published: BMC, 2022-08-01T00:00:00Z.
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Summary:Abstract Background This article investigates the hospital costs related to the management of COVID-19 positive patients, requiring a hospitalization (from the positivity confirmation to discharge, including rehabilitation activities). Methods A time-driven activity-based costing analysis, grounding on administrative and accounting flows provided by the management control, was implemented to define costs related to the hospital management of COVID-19 positive patients, according to real-word data, derived from six public Italian Hospitals, in 2020. Results Results reported that the higher the complexity of care, the higher the hospitalization cost per day (low-complexity = €475.86; medium-complexity = €700.20; high-complexity = €1,401.65). Focusing on the entire clinical pathway, the overall resources absorption, with the inclusion of rehabilitation costs, ranged from 6,198.02€ to 32,141.20€, dependent from the patient's clinical condition. Conclusions Data could represent the baseline cost for COVID-19 hospital management, thus being useful for the further development of proper reimbursement tariffs devoted to hospitalized infected patients.
Item Description:10.1186/s12913-022-08365-9
1472-6963