Abstract
This research aimed to study the cost of health service model for COVID-19 inpatient care that hospitals provided according to the level of inpatient’s condition. The data were from a 5-hospitals case study in Thailand, employing a standardized top-down cost analysis and the micro-costing method based on provider perspective. Three regional and two general hospitals participated by providing hospital data of the fiscal year 2021. There were 7 health service models under study: 1) cohort ward 2) intensive care unit-cohort ward 3) hospitel 4) field hospital 5) field hospital for prisoners 6) home isolation and 7) community isolation. The average cost of treating COVID-19 patients was 31,342 baht per case for the average length of stay (aLOS) of 10.9 days. The cost at the ICU-cohort ward was the highest at 187,257 baht per case, followed by the cost at the cohort ward at 62,033 baht per case and the lowest cost at community isolation at 4,532 baht per case. For COVID-19 patients who experienced more than one service models due to clinical condition change, the average total cost was 91,568 baht per case for aLOS of 11.0 days for those cared in community then moved to hospital; and 149,844 baht per case with aLOS of 12.1 days for those cared in cohort ward then moved to ICU-cohort ward. The results of this study demonstrating different resource uses by service models could be used to evaluate the amount of COVID-19 budgets that health insurance funds made available and paid for service delivery of the hospital compared to the actual cost by service model.
