Injury
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A total of 146 patients were identified from a prospective database of all hip fractures over a 10-year period at a United Kingdom teaching hospital. The financial costs were calculated and analysed and then compared with the money recovered through the tariff produced by Payment by Results. A total of 62% of the study group were female; mean age of 79 years; mean length of stay of 39 days. ⋯ Ward costs were responsible for 80.3%, theatre costs 5.7%, implants 6.7% and investigations 7.3%. The difference in cost was statistically significant when further surgery was required (p = 0.01) and length of stay was greater than 30 days (p < 0.0001), and when compared with the money recovered by the Trust(mean £3702; p < 0.0001). These results reveal the significant economic impact of treating this group of patients at specialist centres.