Missing Early Intervention Leads to Costly Hospital Stays for Patients With HIV

[Jim Allen]

1581 inpatient bed days ($1 million) from mostly preventable issues. A good reason for better engagement & holistic care from the start. 

In full: Contagionlive, 14 Feb 2020 - https://www.contagionlive.com/news/missing-early-intervention-leads-to-costly-hospital-stays-for-patients-with-hiv

In short:

Early intervention and primary care are crucial for managing HIV. Not receiving this care can lead to health complications and costly hospital visits for people infected with HIV, a new study found.

The study, published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases, analyzed the health records of 2063 people infected with HIV who received care at St. James’s Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, from October 2014 to October 2015.

“A small number of people living with HIV (PLWHIV) with mental health, addiction and social challenges (eg homelessness) don’t engage in outpatient HIV care and end up really sick and needing a lot of expensive hospital care,” Clíona Ní Cheallaigh, MB, MRCP, PhD, associate professor, Department of Clinical Medicine, Trinity College Dublin and consultant physician at St. James's Hospital, told Contagion®. “We could potentially save a lot of money by helping these people take their ART and maintain their health.”

Investigators found that 22 of 2063 patients had cumulative hospital stays of longer than 30 days during the study period. These high-cost, high-need users logged 99 emergency department visits and 1581 inpatient bed days, costing the hospital about $1 million during the study period. For 18 of those patients, the requirements that brought them to the hospital were potentially preventable, including 2 who had a late diagnosis of HIV and 16 who had advanced HIV.