OBJECTIVES:

The objective of this work is to calculate the individualized cost of healthcare to cancer patients at the end of life by aggregating all the hospital activity performed to each patient.

METHODS:

Descriptive study based on administrative records of activity and costs. The study population are cancer patients died in the province of Granada (Spain) during the years 2009-2012. No sampling is performed. The data sources are the Registry of Cancer of Granada, records of health care activity of public hospitals in the province and the Analytical Accounting System of the Public Health care System of Andalusia. Combining the information collected in the above mentioned systems, a database of the Economic History of the Patient is generated, which includes the last 24 months of life. The minimum unit of information is each patient's contact with the health care system, with details of the date, medical specialty, reason for attendance and reason for discharge.

RESULTS:

A total of 2978 patients from the Granada Register of Cancer with health care activity have been identified. To date, information has been gathered from external consultations, hospitalization, surgery, diagnostic laboratory tests and radiodiagnosis and ambulatory hospital sessions. The consolidated information provides a chronology of the assistance received that allows to reconstruct, for each patient, the actual development of their care process in the last months of life and the cost associated with that process.

CONCLUSIONS:

The reconstruction of the process of health care activity at patient level through administrative records is a practice still not very widespread in the public health care sector. The knowledge of the unit hospital cost of the treatment of a cancer patient at the end of life and its composition will facilitate an improvement in clinical-economic efficiency in cancer patients and the identification of more efficient treatment patterns according to clinical situation.