28 Nov Congenital Heart Disease Linked To Long Term Inpatient Costs

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Roberta Williams MD
Professor of Pediatrics
Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Dr. Williams: Although a large number of children with chronic disease are surviving into adulthood, the extent and type of health resource needs remains a mystery. Patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) require lifelong care, so it is important to understand present resource utilization both as a foundation for planning services and as a reference point to assess the changes that occur with presumed improved access to care due to health care reform.

MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?

Dr. Williams: Our study indicates that much of inpatient care utilization is determined by the natural history of congenital heart disease as patients enter young adulthood, with a smaller proportion of hospitalizations for surgery and more for congenital heart disease sequalae such as congestive heart failure (CHF), and arrhythmia. The influence of poor access to care was not the focus of this study, but it will be instructive to see how resource utilization changes over time. One hypothesis is that more proactive outpatient care may reduce hospitalization for CHF and arrhythmia but on the other hand, improved survival of increasingly complex patients may drive up inpatient expenditures.

Citation:

Inpatient admissions and costs of congenital heart disease from adolescence to young adulthood

Lu, Yang et al.

American Heart Journal , Volume 168 , Issue 6 , 948 – 955
Published Online: September 13, 2014

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ahj.2014.08.006

Last Updated on November 30, 2014 by Marie Benz MD FAAD