Differences in Hospital Length‐of‐Stay, Charges, and Mortality in Congestive Heart Failure Patients

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Abstract
The aim of this study was to demonstrate differences in hospitalization outcomes including length‐of‐stay (LOS), charges, and mortality in congestive heart failure patients using the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project dataset. Hospitalizations with International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, clinical modification (ICD‐9‐CM) codes for congestive heart failure were extracted from a 10% random Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project sample to yield 19,693 hospitalizations between January 1 and December 31, 1997. Mean hospital charges were $11,688 and mean LOS was 5.83 days. The overall in‐hospital mortality rate was 4.7%. Both LOS and hospital charges were higher in urban compared with rural hospitals (p≤0.05). LOS and charges also increased with hospital size (p≤0.05). Among patient characteristics, patient health status significantly affected LOS, charges, and mortality. Privately insured/health maintenance organization patients had 9% shorter LOS than Medicare patients, and Medicaid patients had 6.6% lower charges and 42% lower mortality than Medicare patients (p≤0.05). Other significant predictors of study outcome variables included age, gender, race, hospital region, and hospital experience.