OUTPATIENT COSTS – COST ACCOUNTING METHOD

Drugs are allocated to corresponding illnesses.

Medical visits are allocated only to illnesses related to corresponding specialty of the same system (anesthesiology to all operations, cardiology only to diseases of the circulatory system and operations of heart and vessels, psychiatry only to mental diseases, etc.).

Radiology services were allocated only to the following ambulatory illnesses: infections, diabetes mellitus, epilepsy, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, malignant neoplasm, hemorrhages, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, diseases of esophagus and peptic ulcer, graft, pain, soft tissue disorders and osteoporosis, all inpatients’ illnesses. They were not related to hypertension or infections for instance.

Physiotherapy was allocated to specific diseases: affections of the musculoskeletal system, chemotherapy and all inpatients diagnostic and operations groups (except new-born).

The illnesses are inferred from physicians’ drugs prescriptions and from hospital diagnoses, if available. If no clinical information is available, the physicians’ specialties or the age and gender of the patients are used. Only the most severe conditions are retained to avoid multiples conditions conducting to costs overestimation. A special attention is given to the choice of prescriptions that can be used or not to infer illnesses, following recommendations made in a recent scientific paper.