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Direct Medical Expense of COVID-19 Patients at Fangcang Shelter Hospital and Leishenshan Designated Hospital in Wuhan, China
27 Pages Posted: 23 Apr 2020
More...Abstract
Background: COVID-19 has become a global public health emergency. While little is known about the economic cost of diagnosing and treating COVID-19 inpatients.
Methods: All COVID-19 patients (N=1634) admitted to a Fangcang shelter hospital and a random sample of 217 cases admitted to Leishenshan hospital, a hospital designated to admit COVID-19 patients only, were included. Demographic information, clinical, and medical cost data were extracted and a systematic description of direct medical costs across mild, moderate, severe and critical cases of COVID-19 was performed. Linear regression models were conducted to identify the predictors of costs.
Results: Medications made up the biggest proportion of costs (66·27%), followed by radiological examinations (19·63%) and laboratory tests (14·10%). The Fangcang shelter hospital spent on average 1769·56 and 2094·69 CNY for per mild case and per moderate case, respectively. At Leishenshan hospital, only one mild case was included, costing 7899·44 CNY overall. The average cost was 7386·38 CNY per moderate case, 12426·38 CNY per severe case, and 115171·70 CNY per critical case. Gender, history of chronic disease and transfers were predictive of higher medical cost, while the duration of hospitalization was positively associated with higher costs but negatively associated with daily costs, and death significantly increased the medical cost.
Conclusions: This study, described the direct medical costs of treatment of patients with varying degrees of COVID-19 severity, and mild/moderate cases were recommended to be admitted to Fangcang shelter hospitals, rather than designated hospitals. Several predictors of medical costs were identified, but more studies are warranted.
Funding Statement: This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Plan of China (Grant No. 2020YFC0845500).
Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Ethics Approval Statement: This study was approved by the Zhongnan Hospital Ethics Committee (No. 2020083K).
Keywords: COVID-19, Fangcang shelter hospital, economic cost
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