From MedPageToday.com
Extra Weight Adds $$ to Chest Pain Treatment
Published: Mar 6, 2014
By Todd Neale, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Among patients showing up in the emergency department with chest pain and dyspnea, those carrying extra weight tended to incur higher costs and have longer hospital stays, researchers found.
Costs were 22% higher for patients who were overweight, 28% higher for those who were obese, and 41% higher for those who were morbidly obese compared with those who had a normal body mass index (BMI), according to Jeffrey Kline, MD, of Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, and colleagues.
In addition, the heaviest patients -- those who were morbidly obese -- stayed in the hospital 34% longer if they didn't have a CT scan and 44% longer if they did have a CT scan compared with normal-weight individuals who didn't have a scan, Kline and colleagues reported online in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
"Acknowledging the need to validate these findings in other settings, we think our data have three immediate implications on clinical operations," the authors wrote.
"First, the data provide a basis for service line directors, administrators, and clinicians to predict that length of stay for patients undergoing CT pulmonary angiography will be higher than average if their patient demographic contains a high prevalence (e.g., greater than 30%) of obese patients," they continued.
"Second, the data underscore the need for more intensive physician education to use pretest probability and D-dimer testing to reduce unnecessary CT scanning," the investigators wrote. "Third, for patients with high BMI whose pretest probability or D-dimer result mandate imaging, systems should have BMI-specific protocols in place, such as increasing the volume of iodinated contrast to reduce the rate of indeterminate image results on CT angiography."
Read more from MedPageToday.com >>
Extra Weight Adds $$ to Chest Pain Treatment
Published: Mar 6, 2014
By Todd Neale, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Among patients showing up in the emergency department with chest pain and dyspnea, those carrying extra weight tended to incur higher costs and have longer hospital stays, researchers found.
Costs were 22% higher for patients who were overweight, 28% higher for those who were obese, and 41% higher for those who were morbidly obese compared with those who had a normal body mass index (BMI), according to Jeffrey Kline, MD, of Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, and colleagues.
In addition, the heaviest patients -- those who were morbidly obese -- stayed in the hospital 34% longer if they didn't have a CT scan and 44% longer if they did have a CT scan compared with normal-weight individuals who didn't have a scan, Kline and colleagues reported online in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
"Acknowledging the need to validate these findings in other settings, we think our data have three immediate implications on clinical operations," the authors wrote.
"First, the data provide a basis for service line directors, administrators, and clinicians to predict that length of stay for patients undergoing CT pulmonary angiography will be higher than average if their patient demographic contains a high prevalence (e.g., greater than 30%) of obese patients," they continued.
"Second, the data underscore the need for more intensive physician education to use pretest probability and D-dimer testing to reduce unnecessary CT scanning," the investigators wrote. "Third, for patients with high BMI whose pretest probability or D-dimer result mandate imaging, systems should have BMI-specific protocols in place, such as increasing the volume of iodinated contrast to reduce the rate of indeterminate image results on CT angiography."
Read more from MedPageToday.com >>
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