The second national hospital costing study: Background, results and implications

Abstract

The costing of hospital outputs, and especially of acute admitted patients categorisedby DRG, has been the focus of considerable attention in the last decade. Manyindividual hospitals now routinely estimate the costs of their main products, severalState and Territory health authorities undertake periodic multi-site studies, and therehave been a few one-off national studies.This paper summarises the methods and results of the most recent national study,which measured costs at a sample of public and private hospitals around Australiafor the 1996?97 financial year. We briefly describe the main results and note someimplications.