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Published on: June 10, 2025

Differences in hospital length-of-stay, charges, and mortality in congestive heart failure patients

Ashish V Joshi1, Anna O D'Souza, S Suresh Madhavan

  • 1Department of Pharmaceutical Systems and Policy, West Virginia University School of Pharmacy, PO Box 9510, Morgantown, WV 26506-9510, USA. ajoshi@hsc.wvu.edu

Congestive Heart Failure (Greenwich, Conn.)
|April 10, 2004
PubMed

Insights

Congestive heart failure hospitalizations show significant variations in length-of-stay, charges, and mortality based on hospital characteristics and patient insurance. Urban hospitals and larger facilities incurred higher costs and longer stays.

Area of Science:

  • Health Services Research
  • Cardiovascular Medicine
  • Health Economics

Background:

  • Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a major cause of hospitalization, incurring substantial healthcare costs.
  • Understanding variations in hospitalization outcomes is crucial for improving care and resource allocation.
  • The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) dataset provides a valuable resource for analyzing large-scale healthcare utilization.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To analyze differences in hospitalization outcomes for congestive heart failure (CHF) patients.
  • To identify factors influencing length-of-stay (LOS), hospital charges, and mortality.
  • To compare outcomes based on hospital characteristics (urban vs. rural, size) and patient demographics/insurance.

Main Methods:

  • Extracted 19,693 hospitalizations with ICD-9-CM codes for CHF from a 10% HCUP sample (1997).
  • Analyzed mean hospital charges, mean LOS, and in-hospital mortality rates.
  • Utilized statistical analysis to compare outcomes across different hospital types and patient groups.

Main Results:

  • Mean hospital charges were $11,688, mean LOS was 5.83 days, and in-hospital mortality was 4.7%.
  • Urban hospitals and larger facilities showed significantly higher LOS and charges compared to rural and smaller ones.
  • Patient insurance type significantly impacted outcomes: privately insured patients had shorter LOS, while Medicaid patients had lower charges and mortality than Medicare patients.

Conclusions:

  • Hospitalization outcomes for CHF patients are influenced by hospital characteristics and patient insurance status.
  • Significant disparities exist in LOS, charges, and mortality, highlighting areas for potential intervention and cost-saving strategies.
  • Patient health status, age, gender, race, and hospital region also emerged as significant predictors of outcomes.

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