Objective:
Increased health cost, which is one of the major problems of countries, makes cost analysis studies become important in specific age groups and clinics. Although the aged population has an enormous role in increasing health costs, there are not much data about follow-up and treatment costs of geriatric patients in the Emergency Departments. We believe that the data obtained from this study would help to improve some arrangements about the geriatric population in ED’s including cost and efficiency.
Material and Methods:
In this study, we have included patients 65 years and above who were admitted to the Emergency Department from 01 January 2011 to 31 March 2011. We gathered data from detailed examination of computer records and the surveys of patients which we obtained at the first admission. We also used computer and billing records to calculate the total cost of patient application and the distribution of this cost into subgroups.
Results:
Avarage cost of 536 geriatric patients (40.3% early, 48.1% middle and 11.6% late geriatric age group) who were admitted to the Emergency Department was 137.5±98.6 TL. Also there were statistically significant correlations between costs and count of consultations, staying time in the Emergency Department, hospitalisation, and presence of coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure.
Conclusion:
In this study, we believe the results, which emphasize elderly patient characteristics and cost elements, might reduce costs to society and social security institution and also it can form a basis for large scale studies in the future.
Keywords: Emergency medical services, aged, hospital costs