Hospital Cost of Sepsis Around the World

SUMMARY
  • Sepsis remains one of the costliest hospital conditions.
  • Globally, average total hospital costs per patient varies greatly from €1,101 to €91,951.
  • The healthcare budget by country spent of sepsis also varied dramatically based on % of GDP.
REVIEW
  • Despite being the most frequent and costliest principal diagnosis, accurate estimates of the economic burden of sepsis at a national level is not known.
  • Several factors limit the ability to evaluate and compare sepsis expenditures between countries:
    • Costs from 1 country cannot be extrapolated to another country
    • Existing data is typically outdated
    • Sepsis is a major global health priority
  • Recently, 20 published studies (16 studies with results) from January 2010 to January 2020 were reviewed to estimate the economic burden of sepsis by country.
    • Some countries had more than 1 study.
    •  The cost ranges within the country ranged by a factor of approximately 4.5
  • Similar results were seen with sepsis costs per capita.
  • Sepsis costs in general ward patients are reported to be higher than ICU patients
    • General Ward: Median = € 48,993
    • ICU: Median = € 22,635 (range 1,555 – 74,245

CONCLUSIONS

  • Regardless of the amount spent, treatment of sepsis is consistently expensive globally.
  • Intensity of care of individual patients does not reflect the cost of healthcare sepsis expenditures
  • General ward costs are greater than ICU costs, most likely due the length of stay being longer on the ward than ICU and a large proportion of patients admitted to the general ward.

To receive articles like these in your Inbox, you can subscribe to Sepsis Program Optimization Insights.

Subscribe to sepsis program optimization insights

Erkan Hassan is the Co-Founder & Chief Clinical Officer of Sepsis Program Optimization where he designs & oversees the implementation of solutions to optimize sepsis programs.

To discuss your organization’s Barriers of Effective Sepsis Care, contact Erkan by phone (844) 4SEPSIS (844-473-7747), email (erkan@spo.icu), or video chat.