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| www.smw.ch |
| Mahler MP, Züger K, Kaspar K, Haefeli A, Jenni W, Leniger T, Beer JH. |
Swiss Med Wkly 2008;138(31–32):459–465
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| Original article Peer reviewed article |
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| Summary Aim of the study: To analyse the costs of stroke in the first year covered by insurance companies and to correlate them with the clinical outcome data. Methods: We contacted the insurance companies of 172 consecutive stroke patients of a single institution cohort for a detailed report of the stroke costs. A complete data set over one year was obtained from 131 patients (76%). Results: Severity of stroke was significantly associated with increasing total costs (p = 0.0002). The rehabilitation clinic made up 37% of the total costs followed by nursing home with 21% and acute hospital with 21%. Mean cost of stroke per patient was 31,115 CHF in the first year. Costs per patient for inpatient rehabilitation were similar to those for the nursing home after one year; however, the Barthel-index of patients with inpatient rehabilitation increased by 42 ± 29 points as compared to patients without inpatient rehabilitation by 23 ± 26 points (p <0.05), and 86% resp. 81% of patients with inpatient stroke rehabilitation lived independently after 6 and 12 months respectively. Conclusions: The high level of independence after inpatient stroke rehabilitation underlines the importance of patient selection and/or rehabilitation. Therefore, long-term stroke costs may be significantly reduced by an early and careful triage in the case management after stroke and a case-dependent investment in initial costly appearing inpatient rehabilitation. |
argomed Ärzte AG, Baden-Dättwil, Switzerland Rehabilitation Clinic Zurzach, Switzerland Departement of Internal Medicine, Kantonsspital Baden, Switzerland the University Hospital of Bern, Switzerland |
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Copyright © 2008 EMH Swiss Medical Publishers Ltd. |
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