Survival of Adult High-Cost Patients
Report of a Follow-up Study From Nine Acute-Care Hospitals
Abstract
To assess the degree to which high-cost illness is terminal illness, survival data were obtained on a random sample of 776 adult high-cost patients from nine acute-care hospitals in the San Francisco Bay area. Two years after discharge, at least 34% of high-cost patients had died. These patients accounted for 39% of the hospital charges incurred by the total group of patients studied. Among the factors significantly associated with death were a diagnosis of cancer (62% death), age older than 64 years (44% death), discharge from a medical (as opposed to surgical) service (42% death), and hospital bill of $10,000 and more (48% death). In-hospital and posthospital death rates varied greatly among the nine hospitals. The data suggest that large amounts of medical care are consumed by patients with unfavorable prognoses.
(JAMA 1981;245:1446-1449)
Footnotes
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Presented in part at the Annual Meeting of the American Federation for Clinical Research, Washington, DC, May 10, 1980.
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Reprint requests to Health Policy Program, 1326 Third Ave, San Francisco, CA 94143 (Dr Schroeder).
