[Comparing individual costs for treatment in acute day and inpatient care--results from a randomised controlled...

Individual costs of non-pharmacological treatments in acute day and inpatient care were assessed within a randomised controlled trial.

For 37 modes of treatment used by 191 patients during their index-hospitalization (92 in day, and 99 in inpatient care) personnel costs were calculated. Data were analysed with non-parametric Mann-Whitney-U-tests and regression-analytic models for cost prediction.

Day care patients caused mean costs of 1559.41 euro per person and received a mean of 198.8 treatments, whereas inpatients caused 947.22 euro and received 138.0 treatments. As concerns inpatient treatment, length of stay, the diagnosis of an ICD-10 F4-disorder, and the level of positive symptoms at admission could be identified as predictors of individual costs. For day hospital treatment, length of stay and illness chronicity contributed significantly to the prediction of individual costs.

The direct health care cost advantage of acute day care--found in several trials which had performed unit-cost analyses--did not appear if personnel costs of the individually received non-pharmacological treatments were used as calculation basis.