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Cost-Effectiveness of Management for Hospitalized Patients
Atsuko Nakayama1, Satoshi Kodera1, Hiroyuki Morita1
1Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo.
Insights
Female cardiologists provide more cost-effective inpatient care for cardiovascular diseases than male cardiologists. This study analyzed hospitalization costs and found physician gender impacts medical economics.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Health Economics
- Medical Management
Background:
- The economic impact of physician gender on inpatient care, particularly for cardiovascular diseases, requires further investigation.
- Understanding cost and cost-effectiveness variations based on physician gender is crucial for healthcare system optimization.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the hospitalization costs and cost-effectiveness of inpatient management for cardiovascular diseases between female and male cardiologists.
- To elucidate the influence of attending physician's gender on the economic outcomes of cardiovascular patient care.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a dataset of 7,457 cardiovascular disease patients hospitalized between 2012 and 2018.
- Extracted hospitalization costs from the Diagnosis Procedure Combination (DPC)-based payment system.
- Compared actual costs and estimated cost-effectiveness (incremental cost-effectiveness ratio per quality-adjusted life year) between care managed by female and male middle-grade cardiologists.
Main Results:
- No significant difference in the initial hospitalization cost per patient between female and male middle-grade cardiologists ($17,527 ± 14,158 vs. $17,358 ± 15,183, P = 0.69).
- Male cardiologists incurred an incremental hospitalization cost of $67 per patient compared to female cardiologists.
- Inpatient management by female cardiologists was found to be dominant in terms of cost-effectiveness per quality-adjusted life year gained.
Conclusions:
- Inpatient management by female cardiologists is more cost-effective compared to male cardiologists for cardiovascular diseases.
- Physician gender may significantly influence the medical economics of patient care.
- Further research into gender-based differences in healthcare delivery and economic outcomes is warranted.
Abstract:
The cost and/or cost-effectiveness for inpatient management according to the gender of attending physicians remain to be elucidated.Hospitalization costs were extracted from the Diagnosis Procedure Combination (DPC) -based payment system. Using a dataset of 7,457 hospitalized patients with cardiovascular diseases in our hospital from 2012 to 2018, we compared the actual cost of inpatient management by female cardiologists with that by male cardiologists. Next, we estimated the cost-effectiveness of inpatient management according to the gender of the attending cardiologist. The cost of initial hospitalization per patient was similar between the patients treated by a female or male middle-grade cardiologist ($17,527 ± 14,158, versus $17,358 ± 15,183, P = 0.69). As an analysis on cost-effectiveness, the incremental cost of hospitalization managed by male middle-grade cardiologists was $67 per patient as compared with female middle-grade cardiologists. Concordantly, evaluation of the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio per quality-adjusted life year gained showed that the inpatient management by female cardiologists was dominant over that by male cardiologists.Inpatient management by female cardiologists was more cost-effective as compared with that by male cardiologists. Physician gender might have a considerable effect on medical economics.
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