Attendance-related healthcare resource utilisation and costs in patients with long QT syndrome in Hong Kong: A retrospective cohort study

Abstract

Introduction: The understanding of healthcare resource utilisation and its related costs is crucial for optimizing resource allocation in the healthcare setting. There is currently a paucity of published studies investigating healthcare costs related to long QT syndrome (LQTS). Method: This was a retrospective study of LQTS patients from Hong Kong, China. The healthcare resource utilisation for Accident and Emergency (A&E), inpatient and specialist outpatient settings across a 19-year period was extracted and analysed. Costs in US dollars were calculated using unit costs. Results: The cohort consists of 125 LQTS patients with a mean presentation age of 26.7 +/- 22.0 years old. Of these, 45 patients presented with ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation (VT/VF) and 44 patients had an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) implementation. At the individual patient level, the median annualised costs were $69 (30-183) at the A&E setting, $10270 (2248-64006) at the inpatient setting and $675 (393-1329) at the special outpatient setting. Patients who presented with VT/VF initially had significantly higher annualised median costs in the inpatient ($59843 [13812-214930] vs. $5480 [1162-23111], p<0.0001) and specialist outpatient setting ($823 [539-1694] vs $609 [383-1269], p=0.133) compared to patients without VT/VF initially. Conclusion: There is an increasing healthcare demand in the inpatient and specialist outpatient settings for LQTS patients. The most expensive attendance type was inpatient setting stay at $10270 per year. The total median annualised cost of LQTS patients without VT/VF was 90% lower compared to patients with VT/VF.