Profile of use and cost of care in knee osteoarthritis

Abstract

Introduction

The profile of health service use in the care of knee osteoarthritis determines the cost of care.

Objective

To determine the profile of use and cost of care in knee osteoarthritis.

Materials and methods

Study of health service profile of use and cost, 258 clinical records were studied. The profile of use identified the type and number of services used in 1 year. The average annual cost was determined by identifying the fixed unit cost, estimated using the time and motion technique, and the variable unit cost, identified using the micro-costing technique, the sum of both resulted in the average unit cost and was multiplied by the profile of use to identify the average annual cost. With this result, projections were made adopting assumptions for specific populations.

Results

The average annual cost of knee osteoarthrosis care was USD $ 205.82; the highest cost corresponds to the fixed cost of consultation and hospitalization services. The total projected cost for 6408 patients with osteoarthritis is USD $ 1,318,917 and for 4644 patients with osteoarthrosis is USD $ 955,844,529.

Conclusion

The cost of care for knee osteoarthritis is high, the projections for the average cost of care for knee osteoarthritis are worrying, this scenario will be true as long as the adopted assumptions are met.