Table 4.

Cost of surgical admission by age group, urgency and cost category compared with patients aged 65 years and younger

Age, yr	Surgical admission	No.	OR supplies			OR salaries			Preoperative inpatient
			Cost ± SD, $	Variance*	% change, (p value)	Cost ± SD, $	Variance*	% change, (p value)	Cost ± SD, $	Variance*	% change, (p value)
< 65	Scheduled	2618	873 ± 624	389 083	Ref.	963 ± 389	151 547	Ref.	38 ± 241	58 046	Ref.
	Unscheduled	3549	585 ± 605	366 528		719 ± 364	132 512		381 ± 332	110 026
	Difference in cost		−288			−244			343
65–79	Scheduled	1459	904 ± 671	450 793	4 (0.15)	918 ± 397	157 411	−5 (< 0.001)	36 ± 82	6720	−7 (0.62)
	Unscheduled	655	599 ± 667	444 777	2 (0.62)	813 ± 351	123 140	13 (< 0.001)	672 ± 1814	3 290 641	−76 (< 0.001)
	Difference in cost		−305	−105			636
≥ 80	Scheduled	381	687 ± 562	316 003	−21 (< 0.001)	796 ± 391	153 005	−17 (< 0.001)	52 ± 659	434 400	36 (0.69)
	Unscheduled	208	576 ± 510	260 362	−2 (0.80)	835 ± 236	55 532	16 (< 0.001)	651 ± 236	55 532	71 (< 0.001)
	Difference in cost		−112	39			599
Age, yr	Surgical admission	No.	Postoperative inpatient			Total
			Cost ± SD, $	Variance*	% change, (p value)	Cost ± SD, $	Variance*	% change, (p value)
< 65	Scheduled	2618	1620 ± 1576	2 482 800	Ref.	3494 ± 2311	5 339 237	Ref.
	Unscheduled	3549	1621 ± 1835	3 365 566		3306 ± 2576	6 633 869
	Difference in cost		2			−187
65–79	Scheduled	1459	1911 ± 1943	3 776 217	18 (< 0.001)	3768 ± 2571	6 607 502	8 (0.001)
	Unscheduled	655	3390 ± 2479	6 146 686	109 (< 0.001)	5473 ± 3925	15 407 258	66 (< 0.001)
	Difference in cost		1480	1705
≥ 80	Scheduled	381	1886 ± 2265	5 127 993	16 (0.03)	3422 ± 2915	8 497 783	−2 (0.64)
	Unscheduled	208	5029 ± 236	55 532	210 (< 0.001)	7091 ± 555	307 654	114 (< 0.001)
	Difference in cost		3143	3669

OR = operating room; Ref. = reference group; SD = standard deviation.

^*Variance of mean cost per procedure by surgical intervention and hospital.