Journal article
Potentially avoidable hospitalisation for constipation in Victoria, Australia in 2010-11
Humaira Ansari, Zahid Ansari, John M Hutson, Bridget R Southwell
BMC Gastroenterology | BIOMED CENTRAL LTD | Published : 2014
Abstract
BACKGROUND: When primary care of constipation fails, the patient may need emergency hospitalisation for disimpaction. This study aimed to provide population-based data on the number of unplanned admissions and the cost to the healthcare system for constipation in Victoria, Australia in financial year 2010-11. METHODS: The Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset was examined to find the number of emergency hospital separations coded as constipation (ICD-10-AM Code K390). An estimate of costs was determined from the number of weighted inlier equivalent separations (WIES) multiplied by the WEIS price, used by the Victorian Government for funding purposes. RESULTS: There were 3978 emergency separati..
View full abstractGrants
Funding Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the Victorian Department of Health (DH) in providing us with the data for this research and reviewing final manuscript. Dr Southwell was supported by an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship and MCRI is supported by the Victorian Government Operational Infrastructure Support Program. Ethics approval from the Royal Childrens Hospital, Melbourne (HREC 33059A). We thank Tracy Y-F Lim for assistance with the manuscript.