Cost of In-patient Management of Covid-19 Patients in a Tertiary Hospital in Kuwait

BackgroundAmong the GCC countries affected by COVID-19 infections, Kuwait was impacted with 658,520 cases and 2,563 deaths as reported by WHO on September 30, 2022. However, the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the economy of Kuwait especially in health sector is unknown. ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to determine the total cost of COVID-19 in-patient management in Kuwait. MethodRetrospective design was employed in this study. A total 485 Covid-19 patients admitted to a tertiary hospital assigned to manage Covid-19 cases was randomly selected for this study from 1st May to 31st September 2021. Data on sociodemographic, length of stay (LOS), discharge status and comorbidity were obtained from the patients medical records. Among others, data on cost in this study cover administration, utility, pharmacy, radiology, laboratory, nursing, and ICU costs. The unit cost per admission was imputed using a step-down costing method with three levels of cost centers. The unit cost was multiplied by the individual patients length of stay to obtain the cost of care per patient per admission. FindingsThe mean cost of Covid-19 inpatient per episode of care was KD 2,216 (SD=2,018) equals to US$ 7,344 (SD=6,688) with the average length of stay of 9.4 (SD=8.5) days per admission. The total treatment costs of Covid-19 inpatient (n=485) were estimated to be KD 1,074,644 (US$ 3,561,585), in which the physician and nursing care cost were the largest share of costs (42.1%) with KD 452,154 (US$ 1,498,529). The second- and third-largest costs were intensive care (20.6%) of KD 221,439 (US$ 733,893) and laboratory costs (10.2%) of KD 109,264 (US$ 362,123). The average cost for severe Covid-19 patient was KD 4,626 (US$ 15,332), which is almost three times higher than the non-severe patients of KD 1,544 (US$ 5,117). ConclusionThe cost of managing Covid-19 cases is substantial. The cost information can assist hospital managers and policymakers in designing more efficient interventions, especially for the management of high-risk groups.