@article{ref1,
title="Effect of the elderly and increasing injury severity on acute hospital resource utilization in a cohort of inner city trauma patients",
journal="ANZ journal of surgery",
year="2013",
author="Dinh, Michael M. and McNamara, Kylie and Bein, Kendall J. and Roncal, Susan and Barnes, Elizabeth H. and McBride, Kate and Byrne, Christopher M.",
volume="83",
number="1-2",
pages="60-64",
abstract="OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the relative effect of elderly patients and increasing injury severity on acute hospital costs and inpatient length of stay. METHODS: A prospective study of all trauma team activations at a single inner city trauma centre was conducted over a 1-year period. Costs were imputed using Australian Refined Diagnosis-Related Groups. Costs and inpatient length of stays were compared between elderly (age ≥65 years) and non-elderly patients. Relative effects of increasing injury severity score (ISS) and age categories were modelled using generalized linear regression. RESULTS: Over the study period, 1096 consecutive patients were studied. Falls were the most common mechanism and contributed the highest proportion of aggregate costs. There was a moderately high correlation between cost and ISS (Spearman's rank correlation coefficient 0.65, P < 0.001). Median costs for elderly patients were around three times higher than that for non-elderly patients and median length of stay was over twice that of non-elderly patients (7 days versus 3 days, P < 0.001). After adjusting for injury severity, the predicted costs of elderly trauma patients were around 30% higher compared with non-elderly patients. An increasing effect of injury severity on cost was observed across minor and major trauma. CONCLUSION: Both injury severity and elderly patients have a significant impact on acute hospital costs across the spectrum of major and minor trauma.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1445-1433",
doi="10.1111/j.1445-2197.2012.06177.x",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1445-2197.2012.06177.x"
}