Hospital cost to treat acute femoral fracture due to osteoporosis at two medicine school hospitals of the Sistema Único de Saúde

Abstract

The number of osteoporotic bone fractures will probably increase as the prevalence of osteoporosis increases in Brazil. The economic burden of the in hospital treatment, mainly of the femoral acute fractures, is still unknown in our country. We evaluated the cost of the inhospital treatment of femoral acute fractures at two hospitals linked to medical schools in São Paulo, SP. Fifty one patients (43 women, 8 men) were treated consecutively over a six-month period at São Paulo Hospital (Paulista School of Medicine – Federal University of São Paulo, HSP) and at Santa Casa de Misericórdia of São Paulo, SC due to a acute femoral osteoporotic fracture. Each hospital applies unique methodology to assess cost of acute femoral fracture treatment. SC approach is based on the Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS) system, while HSP’s is based on the average cost in each medical unit of the hospital (infirmary and critical care unit). The average cost of treatment in HSP was R$ 8.266,25 while in SC was R$ 1.949,65 (average length of hospitalization of 11.1 and 13.0 days respectively). Those figures are not likely to reflect the real cost and do not support the hospital manager to evaluate the economic burden of the acute femoral fracture treatment in those hospitals.