Il costo di una neutropenia febbrile

Abstract

Febrile neutropenia (FN) is one of the most common and severe complications of chemotherapy, particularly when used for the treatment of hematological malignancies and bone marrow transplantation. Estimating its cost for the National Health service (NHS) is difficult, in that the cost of FN is included in the overall reimbursement, which is based on the main DRG declared at discharge. Aim of the present survey, conducted on the patient population treated in two oncology centers in Milan in the years 2001- 2002, was to evaluate the most frequent DRGs associated with neutropenia, with the objective to estimate the mean cost per patient hospitalized with FN. As expected, oncology patients with NF are spread through a wide range of DRGs, but the mean cost per patient resulted comparable in the two considered hospitals ( ~ 9500 euro), as well as the overall distribution among DRGs. The single most frequent DRG was 398 (diseases of reticuloendothelial and immune systems, with complications) which appears to be appropriate, being the closest to the clinical definition of FN available.