Costs and length of sepsis-related hospitalizations in Taiwan

To investigate the healthcare expenditures and length of stay (LOS) of sepsis-related hospitalizations in Taiwan. This is a retrospective claim database study. Data were obtained from the two-million-sample longitudinal health and welfare database (LHWD). Adult patients hospitalized with sepsis between 2010 and 2014 were identified by International Classification of Diseases 9th Edition Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes, and these patients were divided into three levels of sepsis severity. The amount and distribution of their total medical expenditures were investigated. In total, 62,517 patients with 97,790 sepsis-related hospitalizations were included in the present study. It was found that ward fees and medicines comprised the largest component of expenses for sepsis-related hospitalizations. In addition, our study results indicated that the median sepsis-related hospitalization cost was 66.4 thousand New Taiwan Dollar (NT dollars) in 2014, and a significant temporal change was found between 2010 and 2014. The median LOS in a hospital and in an intensive care unit were 11 and 7 days, respectively. Both expenditures and LOS were found to increase with sepsis severity. This study provides an updated and better understanding of the costs and LOS of sepsis-related hospitalizations in Taiwan. It was found that ward fees and medicine fees were the major components of hospital costs.