Rapid Estimation of Hospitalization Charges From a Brief Medical Record Review

In settings where an itemized hospital bill is not generated, estimation of hospitalization charges for research or administrative purposes can be a laborious task. This article examines the extent to which the number of hospital days spent outside an intensive care unit (ICU), number of days in an ICU, number of laboratory tests performed, number of x-rays, and number of surgeries can be used in a multiple regression equation to impute inpatient charges for a sample of 103 hospitalizations at a Veterans Administration hospital. These predictor variables, all of which are readily ascertained in a brief medical record review, accounted for about 97% of the variance in imputed hospital charges. The bootstrap method was applied for validation of the prediction equation. Application of the method described here may be of value to researchers concerned with hospital charge estimation in non-fee-for-service settings.