[Analysis of current costs of pain disorders in Schleswig-Holstein]

In times with limited financial resources quality of treatment and costs of treatment must be considered equally. The AOK has analysed the costs of in-patient treatment of pain patients in Schleswig-Holstein in 1995. The number of patients, mean duration and costs of in-patient treatment were calculated. Altogether 16.614 patients were treated, the mean duration of in-patient treatment was 14.3 days, the mean costs of in-patient treatment were 6911 German marks. Target of a specialised pain therapy must primarily be to alleviate pain, but cost efficiency must be regarded as well.