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. 2014 Dec;100(12):934-43.
doi: 10.1002/bdra.23262. Epub 2014 Jun 27.

Pediatric inpatient hospital resource use for congenital heart defects

Regina M Simeone  1 , Matthew E Oster, Cynthia H Cassell, Brian S Armour, Darryl T Gray, Margaret A Honein
Affiliations

Pediatric inpatient hospital resource use for congenital heart defects

Regina M Simeone et al. Birth Defects Res A Clin Mol Teratol. 2014 Dec.

Abstract

Background: Congenital heart defects (CHDs) occur in approximately 8 per 1000 live births. Improvements in detection and treatment have increased survival. Few national estimates of the healthcare costs for infants, children and adolescents with CHDs are available.

Methods: We estimated hospital costs for hospitalizations using pediatric (0-20 years) hospital discharge data from the 2009 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Kids' Inpatient Database (KID) for hospitalizations with CHD diagnoses. Estimates were up-weighted to be nationally representative. Mean costs were compared by demographic factors and presence of critical CHDs (CCHDs).

Results: Up-weighting of the KID generated an estimated 4,461,615 pediatric hospitalizations nationwide, excluding normal newborn births. The 163,980 (3.7%) pediatric hospitalizations with CHDs accounted for approximately $5.6 billion in hospital costs, representing 15.1% of costs for all pediatric hospitalizations in 2009. Approximately 17% of CHD hospitalizations had a CCHD, but it varied by age: approximately 14% of hospitalizations of infants, 30% of hospitalizations of patients aged 1 to 10 years, and 25% of hospitalizations of patients aged 11 to 20 years. Mean costs of CHD hospitalizations were higher in infancy ($36,601) than at older ages and were higher for hospitalizations with a CCHD diagnosis ($52,899). Hospitalizations with CCHDs accounted for 26.7% of all costs for CHD hospitalizations, with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, coarctation of the aorta, and tetralogy of Fallot having the highest total costs.

Conclusion: Hospitalizations for children with CHDs have disproportionately high hospital costs compared with other pediatric hospitalizations, and the 17% of hospitalizations with CCHD diagnoses accounted for 27% of CHD hospital costs.

Keywords: Kids' Inpatient Database; healthcare resource use; heart defects, congenital; hospital costs.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Total costs of hospitalizations with critical congenital heart defects as a percentage of total costs of all hospitalizations with any congenital heart defect; total hospitalizations with a critical congenital heart defect as a percentage of total hospitalizations with any congenital heart defect, by age. CHD, congenital heart defect; HLHS, hypo-plastic left heart syndrome; Coarc, coarctation of the aorta; ToF, tetralogy of Fallot; DORV, double outlet right ventricle; TGA, transposition of the great arteries; Single, single ventricle; Pulm Atr, pulmonary atresia; Aortic, interruption or hypoplasia of aortic arch; Tric Atr, tricuspid atresia; TAPVR, total anomalous pulmonary venous return; Truncus, truncus arteriosus; Ebstein, Ebstein anomaly
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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