Length of stay and therapeutic intervention allow estimation of in-hospital resource use independent of site and inflation

A method for estimating hospital resource utilization has been developed. It is independent of site and inflation and not affected by hospital accounting artifacts. It measures hospital production cost directly, not measuring hospital revenue, making it a better method for assessing impact on total hosptial cost from a change in a medical care process. It is especially useful for multisite studies of severely ill patients. A prospective cohort study of prognoses, preferences, and outcomes for seriously ill hospitalized adults was carried out in five US teaching hospitals. Subjects, numbering 4301 in the derivation sample and 4804 in the validation sample, were enrolled in the Study to Understand Prognoses and Preferences for Outcomes and Risks of Treatment (SUPPORT). Determining costs of alternative treatments or models of care is increasingly important.