A multidimensional analysis of the impact of high-cost hospitalization.

In this update of a study of high-cost illness, we analyzed data on 1,455,766 discharges from 167 short-term general hospitals that participated in the Professional Activity Study of the Commission on Professional and Hospital Activities. Our results suggest that high-cost hospitalization can be characterized broadly by two groups: the single costly hospital episode and the multiple-admission pattern. We propose a theoretical framework to analyze high-cost hospitalization in terms of three dimensions: the magnitude of expenditures, the scope of high-cost illness within the cohort, and the scale of high-cost hospitalization within the population at large.