1. Key messages
- Hospital costs are highest for stroke.
- The average costs per hospital stay for cardiovascular diseases (strokes, heart attacks) are high.
- Hospital costs for stroke seem to have increased in recent years.
2. Cost of hospital stays
Costs of hospital stays are highest for stroke
When we compare cirrhosis, acute cerebrovascular disease (stroke), and acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), stroke had the highest total hospital costs in 2020.
Source: Gegevens uit de databank TCT, de dato 05 10 2023; Dienst Data en Beleidsinformatie, FOD Volksgezondheid, Veiligheid van de Voedselketen en Leefmilieu, België [1, 2]
The average costs per hospital stay for cardiovascular diseases are high
When we compare the total hospital costs with other estimates of disease burden, we see that the diseases appear in different parts of the graph. Hospital stays for cirrhosis of the liver are less common (left part of the graph), and the total costs are relatively low compared to cardiovascular diseases (small bubble). Strokes and heart attacks are more common than liver cirrhosis, and have high total hospital costs.
Source: Gegevens uit de databank TCT, de dato 05 10 2023; Dienst Data en Beleidsinformatie, FOD Volksgezondheid, Veiligheid van de Voedselketen en Leefmilieu, België [1, 2]
Hospital costs for stroke seem to increase in recent years
The total hospital costs for strokes seem to increase in recent years. The total hospital costs for heart attacks and cirrhosis seem to be stable over the years.
Source: Gegevens uit de databank TCT, de dato 05 10 2023; Dienst Data en Beleidsinformatie, FOD Volksgezondheid, Veiligheid van de Voedselketen en Leefmilieu, België [1, 2]. Data related to diagnoses and procedures for the 2015 registration year are not available due to a transition period as part of the transition from the ICD-9-CM to ICD-10-BE classification system.
3. Read more
Background
Data source
The best data source for each disease is determined by a critical appraisal [3]). The analysis of the costs of cardiovascular diseases and cirrhosis on this webpage is based on the hospital discharge data from the Technical Cell for data processing regarding hospitals [1, 2]. This dataset is based on linked and validated data from the Minimum Hospital Summary of the FPS Public Health and on INAMI billing data. The latter comes from the anonymous hospital stay (SHA-AZV) documents sent by the insurers [1].
How we calculate hospital costs
We received the total hospital costs and number of hospital stays for all years by disease directly from the Technical Cell. To calculate the average costs per hospital stay for the bubble graph, we divided the total hospital costs by the number of hospital stays.
Definitions
- Hospital costs
- The hospital costs represent the costs for hospital stays based on the hospital discharge data from the Technical Cell for data processing regarding hospitals [1]. They include nursing day price, drugs, services, clinical biology, and other amounts.
References
- Technische Cel, FPS Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment. https://www.health.belgium.be/en/node/34169
- Gegevens uit de databank TCT, de dato 05 10 2023; Dienst Data en Beleidsinformatie, FOD Volksgezondheid, Veiligheid van de Voedselketen en Leefmilieu, België.
- R. De Pauw, V. Gorasso, and B. Devleesschauwer, Belgian national burden of disease study. Guidelines for the calculation of DALYs in Belgium. Brussels, Belgium: Sciensano, 2022. https://www.sciensano.be/sites/default/files/bebod-protocol-20220210.pdf
Please cite this page as: Sciensano. Cost of illness: hospital stays, Health Status Report, 22 Apr 2024, Brussels, Belgium, https://www.healthybelgium.be/en/health-status/cost-of-illness/hospital-stays