Hospital costs of XXXX .

@entity1 @entity130
The purpose of this study was to provide economic, epidemiologic, and clinical data on initial hospitalizations of @entity1 with @entity130 . DESIGN: Concurrent prospective study; data obtained by medical records review. SETTING: A county university teaching hospital designated a level I @entity130 center. SUBJECTS: 34,893 @entity1 first hospitalized for @entity130 at the King/Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles from January 1978 through December 1992. RESULTS: The aggregate hospital cost for 34,893 @entity130 , exclusive of professional fees, was  264,506,455.00, of which 96% was borne directly or indirectly by public funds. The charge for initial hospitalizations was  240,700,855.00. Mean and median initial charges per case were  6898.00 and  1,022.00, respectively (range,  944.00 to  296,232.00). The 5% of @entity1 with charges greater than  100,000 accounted for 42% of all charges; 45% of all @entity1 days were attributable to the 4% @entity1 , with hospitalizations lasting more than 30 days. Three thousand thirty-one @entity1 were rehospitalized a total of 4,578 times; charges for rehospitalization totaled  23,805,600.00. At least 55% (75% of identifiable weapon and missile injuries) of all charges resulted from handgun injuries. Treating the majority of @entity1 on an outpatient basis and by using selective angiography for extremity wounds, a savings of more than  775,000,000.00 resulted. The potential cost of treating gunshot wounds at a single county hospital was more than  1 billion, or more than  100 million per year. CONCLUSIONS: The costs for hospital treatment of @entity130 are substantial. A lack of rehabilitation facilities forces prolonged acute hospital admissions in many cases. Avoiding prolonged hospitalization may be helpful in controlling these costs, but will be difficult to achieve. Ninety-six percent of the @entity1 in this report had their costs of care covered by the government, because they had no primary insurance coverage. Primary prevention of @entity130 , especially those caused by handguns, may be the most effective cost-control measure.
