Original Research
Cost Savings of Hip Arthroplasty Patients on Specialty Orthopedic Surgery Units
Am J Orthop. 2009 January;38(1):E5-E12
Author and Disclosure Information
John A. Batsis, MD, James M. Naessens, ScD, MPH, Mark T. Keegan, MD, Paul M. Huddleston, MD, Amy E. Wagie, BS, and Jeanne M. Huddleston, MD
Dr. Batsis is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School, and Section of General Internal Medicine, Dartmouth–Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, New Hampshire. The work was performed while he was at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.
Dr. Naessens is an Assistant Professor of Biostatistics, Division of Health Care Policy and Research, Dr. Keegan is an Associate Professor of Anesthesia, Dr. Paul M. Huddleston is an Assistant Professor of Orthopedics, Ms. Wagie is with the Division of Health Care Policy and Research, and Dr. Jeanne M. Huddleston is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Divisions of Health Care Policy and Research and Hospital Medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota.
We retrospectively compared resource use of 2 groups of patients who underwent total hip arthroplasty between 1996 and 2004: those cared for on specialized orthopedic surgery (SOS) units and those cared for on nonorthopedic nursing (NON) units. Of 5546 patients, 5275 (95.1%) were admitted to SOS units and 271 (4.9%) to NON units. Mean overall adjusted cost saving for SOS patients was $622 (SD, $315; 95% CI, $3, $1241). Mean blood bank and room-and-board costs were lower on SOS units: $110 (SD, $36; 95% CI, $40, $181) and $298 (SD, $118; 95% CI, $66, $530), respectively. Difference in length of stay was not significant: mean, 0.19 day; SD, 0.11 day; 95% CI, –0.02 day, 0.40 day. Our results suggest that SOS units, as one way of optimizing patient flow in the postoperative period, may reduce unnecessary inpatients costs.