Cost Analysis
The Irish Health Service Executive (HSE) periodically publishes an
inpatient ready reckoner of acute hospital inpatient and daycase
activity costs summarised by diagnosis related group (DRG). The most
recent edition was published in 2013 using total costs per DRG from 2011
data broken down into costs per average case. Admissions are further
stratified by whether a catastrophic or severe complication occurred
during their inpatient stay, but as HIPE data does not provide this
information, a total average cost per case was calculated. This was then
used to calculate cost per bed-day, which was then applied to bed-day
usage data for the current study, to calculate monthly costs.