Hospital costs--the medical student component

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Hospital Administration
• Health Economics

Background:

• Teaching hospitals incur costs beyond direct medical care.
• Previous studies suggested significant indirect costs associated with undergraduate medical education.
• Understanding these costs is crucial for accurate hospital financial analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify the indirect costs attributable to undergraduate teaching in a large affiliated hospital.
• To determine if these indirect costs explain the higher per-day bed costs in teaching versus non-teaching hospitals.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of financial records from a large affiliated teaching hospital in 1975.
• Categorization and quantification of direct and indirect costs related to undergraduate teaching.
• Comparison of findings with previous studies on hospital bed costs.

Main Results:

• Direct university costs for undergraduate teaching amounted to $1,800,000 (7.6% of total hospital expenditure).
• Indirect costs attributed to undergraduate teaching were significantly lower, totaling $41,000 (approximately 0.2% of hospital expenditure).

Conclusions:

• Indirect costs associated with undergraduate teaching are negligible in large teaching hospitals.
• The previously observed 45% difference in per-day bed costs between teaching and non-teaching hospitals is not explained by the indirect demands of clinical schools.