Abstract 10090: Cost-Effectiveness of Management for Hospitalized Patients; Gender Difference Between Female and Male Cardiologists

Abstract

Introduction: The cost and/or cost-effectiveness for inpatient management according to the gender of attending physicians remain to be elucidated. Hypothesis: The treatment by female cardiologists may be cost-effective. Methods: The hospitalization costs were extracted from the Diagnosis Procedure Combination (DPC) -based payment system. Using the dataset of 7,457 hospitalized patients with cardiovascular diseases in our hospital from 2012 to 2018, we compared the actual cost of inpatient management by female cardiologists with that by male cardiologists. Next, we estimated the cost-effectiveness of inpatient management according to the gender of attending cardiologists. Results: The cost of initial hospitalization per patient was similar between the patients treated by a female middle-grade cardiologist and those treated by a male middle-grade cardiologist ($17,527 ± 14,158, vs. $17,358 ± 15,183, P=0.69). As an analysis on cost-effectiveness, the incremental cost of hospitalization managed by male middle-grade cardiologists was $67 per patient as compared with that by female middle-grade cardiologists. Concordantly, the evaluation on incremental cost-effectiveness ratio per quality-adjusted life year gained showed that the inpatient management by female cardiologists was dominant over that by male cardiologists (less cost and better effect). Conclusions: Inpatient management by female cardiologists was more cost-effective as compared with that by male cardiologists. Physicians’ gender might have a considerable effect on the medical economics.