Hospital expenditure on treating complications of diabetes and the potential for deferring complications in Canterbury, New Zealand
Sheerin, I.
New Zealand Medical Journal 122(1288): 22-29
2009
ISSN/ISBN: 1175-8716 PMID: 19182839 Document Number: 633384
To investigate annual expenditure by a major district health board in New Zealand on hospital admissions for treating the various complications of diabetes. Actual costs were analysed for 2005/06, for all inpatient hospital admissions in Canterbury, New Zealand, where diabetes was recorded as a primary or secondary diagnosis. Costs and lengths of stay for all such admissions were included for ICD-10 codes using the criteria from Australian studies of potentially avoidable hospitalisations. ICD-10 codes were used to identify the major types of complications of diabetes resulting in hospital admissions. Total costs of all hospital admissions where diabetes was recorded as a primary or secondary diagnosis amounted to $10.1 million in 2005/06, and 9511 days stay in hospital; 69% of these costs were for admissions where diabetes was a secondary diagnosis, with the majority of such costs being for treatment of admissions for cardiovascular disease. The results generally indicated that diabetes associated with hospital admissions is a major factor, which is still under-reported, and which involves considerable costs of treating the longer term consequences of diabetes. The largest proportion of these costs is for cardiovascular disease, where diabetes is the secondary diagnosis.