Understanding patient costs

Do you know how much the person leaving your hospital right now cost you during their stay? Or whether that amount is more or less than the income you will receive for their treatment? Do your consultants understand how their decisions affect the cost of patient care?

The answer is probably no to all of these, but patient-level costing offers a way to link costs to individual patients, to involve clinicians in controlling these costs and to reduce unnecessary variation in the cost of care. Watch HSJ’s online masterclass to learn more.

• Duration: 45 minutes
• Cost: FREE
• Where: your PC
• When: On demand
• Register and watch on demand now

This HSJ masterclass is aimed at helping you understand and implement patient-level costing across your organisation. Since tariffs were introduced, NHS organisations have known what their income for a particular patient would be - but have often been ignorant of the cost of providing care for that patient.

Patient-level costing allows costs to be allocated to a patient, showing how this compares to the income received.

For clinicians, patient-level costing can be an important tool in understanding why costs differ between patients and where NHS resources are not being used efficiently - allowing them to pinpoint areas where waste, rather than services, can be cut.

By looking across the whole patient pathway, dedicated software can make clinical staff more aware of the impact of their decisions on costs in other areas such as pathology and imaging, and encourage prudent use of resources.

Differences in theatre time use, drug costs and overall length of stay can all be used to prompt discussion among clinical teams and departments, and ultimately changes in practice.

For finance staff, patient-level costing is a vital tool to understand what the hospital is doing well and whether outliers can be brought closer to the average without impacting on the quality of care. Comparing costs with income allows groups of patients where the cost of providing care exceeds what the hospital is paid to be identified and the reasons to be analysed. Focusing on unusually high spending on individual components of care can drive efficient use of resources and ultimately improve the bottom line.

But perhaps most importantly patient-level costing can bring together clinicians and managers with shared information and promote discussions about how high quality patient care be provided at an acceptable cost.