In-Hospital Patient-Level Costing Methodologies: A Protocol for a Systematic Review
Creators: name: Bezerra, Isabella Lott
name: Nunes, Tássia Camila Santos
name: Malheiro, Daniel Tavares
name: de Souza, Janaína Monique Ferreira
name: Nassar Jr, Antonio Paulo
name: Pereira, Adriano José
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Hospital costs, micro costing, cost analysis, costing methodology

description: Review Question: What methodologies are applied in hospitals to measure individual patient costs?

Searches: We will search the PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science databases without language and date of publication restrictions. 

The planned search strategies are as follows:






Database



Search strategy





PubMed



("hospital costs"[MeSH Terms] OR "hospital cost*"[Text Word] OR "hospitalization/economics"[MeSH Terms] OR" economics, hospital"[MeSH Terms]) AND ("accounting/methods"[MeSH Terms] OR "costs and cost analysis/methods"[MeSH Terms] OR "cost allocation/methods"[MeSH Terms] OR "cost allocation*"[Text Word] OR Cost Accounting [Text Word] OR micro costing [Text Word] OR Micro-costing [Text Word] OR Microcosting [Text Word] OR Cost* methodo*[Text Word])





Embase



('hospital cost':ti,ab,kw OR 'hospital costs':ti,ab,kw) AND 'cost allocation':ti,ab,kw OR 'cost allocations':ti,ab,kw OR 'microcosting':ti,ab,kw)





Scopus



TITLE-ABS-KEY

("hospital cost*" OR "cost of hospitalization" OR "hospital* econom*") AND ("cost allocation*" OR "account* method*" OR "costs and cost analysis method*" OR "microcost*" OR "micro cost*" OR "Micro-cost*")





Web of Science



((((TI=("hospital cost" OR "hospital costs")) OR AB=("hospital cost" OR "hospital costs")) OR AK=("hospital cost" OR "hospital costs")) AND AB=("cost allocation" OR "cost allocations"  OR "microcosting"))





 

Types of Studies to be Included: We will include cross-sectional and cohort studies that report hospitalization costs at the patient level, i.e., the cost per patient.We will exclude studies that:



Did not calculate individual costs but only assessed average costs per patient in the hospital;

Calculated costs for only part of hospital care, such as ICU admissions, exams, or surgeries;

Calculated costs for only a subset of patients (e.g., those with a specific condition), which does not allow for value-based decision-making throughout the hospital, as comprehensive cost and outcome data for all patients are necessary;

Did not calculate direct costs (e.g., reviews, editorials, qualitative research, and studies that presented only cost estimates).


 

Data Extraction: Two independent researchers will collect data from the studies selected for qualitative synthesis using a digital form. Disagreements between reviewers will be resolved by a third author. The following data will be collected:



Publication details: first author, year, title, and journal;

Research methodology: duration of data collection and number of hospitals included;

Hospital location: country and income classification (high or low/medium);

Hospital size: small (less than 50 beds), medium (50 to 149 beds), or large (150 beds or more);

Type of hospital: public, private, non-profit, and whether it is a teaching hospital or not;

Number of patients;

Costing method applied: Traditional Costing System (TCS), Economic Costing, Activity-Based Costing (ABC), Time-Driven Activity Based Costs (TDABC), Cost-to-Charge Ratios (CCR), Relative Value Units (RVU), or others;

Methodology for calculating the costs of medicines, materials, labor, depreciation, and maintenance.


A Google Form will be used to create the electronic form and collect data. EndNote and Rayyan will be used to manage bibliographical references. The recommendations of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) will be followed.

 

Date of last search: 12 July 2024