Citation

Hemington-Gorse SJ, Potokar TS, Drew PJ, Dickson WA. Burns 2009; 35(3): 378-382.

Affiliation

Welsh Centre for Burns and Plastic Surgery, Morriston Hospital, Morriston, Swansea SA6 6NL, United Kingdom.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.burns.2008.08.012

PMID

18951712

Abstract

It has been accepted for many years that the cost of care for the burn-injured patient is high. There is, however, little published data to show how "expensive" it is. At the Welsh Centre for burns we have undertaken a costing exercise in an attempt to define the true cost to the treatment of burns. Using our current cost base and activity, we established a cost per health related group (HRG) for burns and also prospectively calculated costs for three inpatients to determine whether HRG-based burn tariffs accurately represent these costs. The NHS is under increasing pressure to provide evidence to support budgetary requirements; we feel this paper offers a framework for burn care costing upon which calculations could be based.

Language: en