[Trends in inpatient treatment in ophthalmology in Germany].

BACKGROUND

Over the last decade inpatient treatment has been reduced in favor of outpatient care or markedly shortened inpatient stays in most organ-specific surgical specialties such as ophthalmology in Germany.

METHODS

Data from the federal statistics agency on the international classification of disease (ICD), diagnosis-related groups (DRG) and performed operations and procedures from 2000 to 2010 as well as data from the Institute for Reimbursements of Hospitals (InEK) on average costs per DRG in every German DRG (G-DRG) version from 2004 to 2010 were analyzed for ophthalmology.

RESULTS

From 2000 to 2010, the number of cases with a main ophthalmological diagnosis decreased (-19 %), which was mostly due to a reduction in the number of cataract inpatients (-56 %). All subspecialties such as glaucoma (+82 %) and retina (+68 %) with the exception of primary strabismus diagnoses (-15 %) gained in number of cases. Inpatient cataract surgery was the most common surgery in 2004 but numbers decreased to 2010 (-9 %). The most often performed inpatient procedure was vitreoretinal surgery in 2007 and 2010 (increase 2004-2010 + 46 %). Average hospital stay decreased between 2005 and 2010 from 3.9 to 3.4 days and the average cost per case increased by 3.6 % overall and by 13.4 % for surgical cases.

CONCLUSION

Ophthalmic healthcare provided as inpatient services decreased with a trend towards more complex cases being treated as inpatients from 2000 to 2010.