COSTING TRANSURETHRAL RESECTION OF THE PROSTATE AND DIAGNOSIS RELATED GROUP IN AUSTRALIA COMPARED WITH UNITED STATES COSTS

Abstract

The cost of a transurethral resection of the prostate is of considerable concern to the community. More of these procedures are being performed as the number of patients in the aged population increases. The costs of wages and salaries, purchase of equipment and depreciation, stationery, linen, investigations (pathology) and pharmaceuticals are compared with the bed charges (as charged to a private patient), the cost per inpatient day and the cost per inpatient treated, which is calculated from the operating fund budget expenditure of The Bendigo Hospital. The cost per diagnosis related group (DRG) 336 (defined as: transurethral prostatectomy, age greater than 69 and/or complication/co-morbidity; mean length of stay 7.0; relative weight = 0.9869) and DRG 337 (defined as: transurethral prostatectomy, age less than 70 without complication/co-morbidity; mean length of stay 5.8; relative weight = 0.7788) are compared with the figures for a similar procedure in 1987 in a United States hospital and extrapolated, by the use of the Consumer Price Index, to 1992 levels. The findings demonstrate that transurethral resection of the prostate as costed in this hospital compares very favourably with that in a US hospital, and favourably from the point of view of health care costs.