A strategy for cost containment in coronary surgery

Patients with multivessel coronary atherosclerosis and stable angina pectoris were examined by outpatient testing and admitted to a staging area with their families on the morning of coronary bypass surgery. This experimental group was not hospitalized before surgery. Their hospital charges were compared with those of cohorts of coronary artery surgery patients from 1977 to 1981 who met the same entrance criteria. Length of stay in the hospital was reduced by two days. A 10% savings in hospital charges was realized in the 1981 experimental group as compared with the 1981 control group. A comparison of total hospital charges, adjusted for inflation, shows that 1981 experimental group patients paid 35% less for their hospital room, 45% less for their intensive care period, and 17% less in total charges than the 1977 control group. Interviews indicated that these patients with stable cardiac conditions preferred to stay with their families or friends before surgery.