Hospital cost analysis of Chinese patients with diabetes, 2015-2019

Abstract Background To examine the length of stay, hospitalization cost, and cost influencing factors among the Chinese inpatient with diabetes mellitus (DM). Methods This is a retrospective study that collected data from the Hospital Information System of a tertiary A general hospital in China, we analyzed 9186 cases of diabetes (type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes) during 2015–2019. Results The number of inpatients had increased but the per capita hospitalization costs had decreased in the study period. The mean (SD) length of hospital stay among the participants was (15.13 ± 5.66) days. The average per capita hospital cost of 9186 hospitalized patients with diabetes was ¥8689.98. The factors affecting the hospitalization costs of diabetic patients according to the degree of influence from large to small were length of stay, number of complications, age, severe illness, type of diabetes, surgical treatment, consistent admission and discharge, department, route of admission, and payment method. Conclusions The length of hospital stay was the main influencing factor of hospitalization costs of diabetic patients. The medical security system and other measures should be further improved to minimize the hospitalization costs of diabetic patients.