PMID- 19203365
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20090420
LR  - 20220316
IS  - 1472-6963 (Electronic)
IS  - 1472-6963 (Linking)
VI  - 9
DP  - 2009 Feb 9
TI  - Direct medical costs of adverse events in Dutch hospitals.
PG  - 27
LID - 10.1186/1472-6963-9-27 [doi]
AB  - BACKGROUND: Up to now, costs attributable to adverse events (AEs) and preventable 
      AEs in the Netherlands were unknown. We assessed the total direct medical costs 
      associated with AEs and preventable AEs in Dutch hospitals to gain insight in 
      opportunities for cost savings. METHODS: Trained nurses and physicians 
      retrospectively reviewed 7,926 patient records in 21 hospitals. Additional 
      patient information of 7,889 patients was received from the Dutch registration of 
      hospital information. Direct medical costs attributable to AEs were assessed by 
      measuring excess length of stay and additional medical procedures after an AE 
      occurred. Costs were valued using Dutch standardized cost prices. RESULTS: The 
      annual direct medical costs in Dutch hospitals were estimated at a total of euro 
      355 million for all AEs and euro 161 million for preventable AEs in 2004. The 
      total number of hospital admissions in which a preventable AE occurred was 30,000 
      (2.3% of all admissions) and more than 300,000 (over 3% of all bed days) bed days 
      were attributable to preventable AEs in 2004. Multilevel analysis showed that 
      variance in direct medical costs was not determined by differences between 
      hospitals or hospital departments. CONCLUSION: The estimates of the total 
      preventable direct medical costs of AEs indicate that they form a substantial 
      part (1%) of the expenses of the national health care budget and are of 
      importance to hospital management. The cost driver of the direct medical costs is 
      the excess length of stay (including readmissions) in a hospital. Insight in 
      which determinants are associated with high preventable costs will offer useful 
      information for policymakers and hospital management to determine starting points 
      for interventions to reduce the costs of preventable AEs.
FAU - Hoonhout, Lilian H F
AU  - Hoonhout LH
AD  - Department of Public & Occupational Health, EMGO Institute, VU University Medical 
      Centre (VUmc), Amsterdam, The Netherlands. lilian.hoonhout@vumc.nl
FAU - de Bruijne, Martine C
AU  - de Bruijne MC
FAU - Wagner, Cordula
AU  - Wagner C
FAU - Zegers, Marieke
AU  - Zegers M
FAU - Waaijman, Roelof
AU  - Waaijman R
FAU - Spreeuwenberg, Peter
AU  - Spreeuwenberg P
FAU - Asscheman, Henk
AU  - Asscheman H
FAU - van der Wal, Gerrit
AU  - van der Wal G
FAU - van Tulder, Maurits W
AU  - van Tulder MW
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20090209
PL  - England
TA  - BMC Health Serv Res
JT  - BMC health services research
JID - 101088677
SB  - IM
MH  - Adolescent
MH  - Adult
MH  - Aged
MH  - Child
MH  - Child, Preschool
MH  - Female
MH  - *Hospital Costs
MH  - Humans
MH  - Infant
MH  - Male
MH  - Medical Audit
MH  - Medical Errors/*economics
MH  - Middle Aged
MH  - National Health Programs
MH  - Netherlands
MH  - Retrospective Studies
MH  - Young Adult
PMC - PMC2645386
EDAT- 2009/02/11 09:00
MHDA- 2009/04/21 09:00
PMCR- 2009/02/09
CRDT- 2009/02/11 09:00
PHST- 2008/12/18 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2009/02/09 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2009/02/11 09:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2009/02/11 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2009/04/21 09:00 [medline]
PHST- 2009/02/09 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 1472-6963-9-27 [pii]
AID - 10.1186/1472-6963-9-27 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - BMC Health Serv Res. 2009 Feb 9;9:27. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-9-27.