OBJECTIVES: In Latin America, approximately half of hospitalized patients experience malnutrition or its risk, while many others experience deterioration of their nutritional status while in the hospital. These patients often experience poor health outcomes resulting in increased costs of care. We estimated potential savings associated with the implementation of an early nutritional care program in malnourished or at-risk hospitalized patients via a budget impact model analysis.

METHODS: The model compares the clinical and economic outcomes (length of stay, complications, and 30-day hospital readmissions) of patients assigned to receive early nutritional therapy program (started within 24-48 hours after hospital admission) compared to patients receiving delayed nutritional therapy. The early nutritional therapy program consists of malnutrition screening with validated tool, early intervention with oral nutritional supplement, and discharge education/follow-up. Results are projected over a 60-day time horizon, with probabilities of occurrence of events taken from published data. Costs and epidemiological data were evaluated from Latin American countries (Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Panama, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Costa Rica).

RESULTS: Total healthcare costs in Latin America over 60-days averaged $1,912 for patients with early nutrition therapy vs $3,031 for patients with standard nutrition therapy. Cost differences between the groups were $1,219 vs $1,600 for hospital-associated costs, $227 vs $311 for 30-day readmissions, and $413 vs $1,087 for malnutrition-associated complications. Applying these potential savings from individualized early nutrition care to a one-year estimate based on the countries’ population of hospital patients with malnutrition or its risk, the average total of overall savings for public health expenditures was $6.7 billion-per year.

CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrate the potential for hospital-based nutrition care programs to reduce hospitalization related costs among 9 Latin American countries. These findings provide rationale for Latin American healthcare institutions to implement programs of comprehensive nutrition-focused care for inpatients with malnutrition or its risk.