OnSiteClinics.Org

Some Hospital Data

All benefits managers are out there searching daily for data that may help them better understand, negotiate, reduce health care spend.  With the implementation of the Hospital-Compare web site by CMS, and the continual call for pricing transparency, data are becoming more available (but still, obviously, not where they need to be-YET).

However, as frequent visitors to Becker’s Hospital Review, we noted some stats that may be of interest regarding hospital costs.  They concern the huge increase in expense for hospitalization anytime surgery is involved.  Here are those data, directly from Becker’s (these are from AHRQ for 2011):

Average hospital costs – with an OR procedure $16,700; without $7,400.   Aggregate hospital stays with an OR procedure: $185 billion versus without an OR procedure: $202 billion.  While only 29% of hospital stays involve an OR procedure, those stays account for 47.9% of costs.