Medical Expenditures of Community- Acquired Pneumonia Hospitalization: A Two-Year Retrospective Study from a Hospital Electronic Database in Vietnam

Abstract

Introduction: Community-Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) causes respiratory diseases that lead to numerous deaths and an increased burden on the healthcare system. In 2014, the Ministry of Health of Vietnam reported that 4000 children under the age of 5 die because of CAP every year. Aim: The aim of this study was to estimate the direct medical costs per case for CAP treatment from the hospital perspective and to evaluate the use of antibiotics at a public hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was conducted between January 2015 and December 2016 at Trung-Vuong Hospital. Pneumonia episodes, identified by ICD-10 (J10–J18) and assigned to medical encounters, were validated through the hospital electronic database (n=1,854). Treatment costs consisted of costs of hospital beds, diagnostics, operations, laboratory tests, pharmaceuticals, medical supplies and other services, which was calculated and .presented by using descriptive statistics methods. Results: The average cost per case (mean/SD) of all age groups was $795.1/$86.2; the highest cost was incurred by the group aged over 85 years, at $1253.7/$90.3. The average cost to treat CAP in male patients was $810.2/$85.5, which was higher than the treatment cost for females, at $778.6/$86.7, but the difference was not significant (P=0.450). The total burden of CAP in the period 2015–2016 was $1,474,052.9. The total costs of pharmaceuticals represented the largest proportion of the total costs (65.9%), at $971,646, and the cost of antibiotics was $380.5/$111.8 per episode. According to the sensitivity analysis, if the costs of the hospital beds were reduced by 20%, the total treatment cost for CAP would fall by 1.6%. Conclusion: The study contributed evidence of the high treatment costs of CAP in the Vietnamese context. Given the significance of the disease burden, the potential benefit of vaccination in adults is substantial.

Keywords

• cap
• community-acquired pneumonia
• direct cost
• economic analysis
• vietnam