Table 1.

Operational definitions of hospitalizations expenditures

Variables	definition
Total hospitalization expenditures	Sum of all component expenditures
Comprehensive medical service fee	1.General medical service fee: consultation fees, bed charges, consultation fees and nutritional counselling.
	2.General treatment operation fee: the costs of injections, debridement, dressing changes, catheterization, oxygen, resuscitation and intensive care.
	3.Nursing care fee: costs of hierarchical care and specialized care during the patient’s hospital stay.
	4.Other fee: the costs of ward heating, ward air-conditioning, ambulance use, etc.
Diagnostic fee	1.Pathological diagnosis fee: pathology-related examination programme costs.
	2.Laboratory diagnosis fee: laboratory testing costs.
	3.Imaging diagnosis fee: fees for imaging tests such as fluoroscopy, angiography, CT, MRI, ultrasound, nuclear scanning, PET, etc.
	4.Clinical diagnosis item fee: the costs of various other tests carried out by clinical departments for diagnostic purposes.
Treatment fee	1.Treatment fee: costs incurred for items treated clinically using non-invasive and invasive means.
	2.Traditional Chinese medical treatment fee: the costs arising from treatment using Chinese medicine.
Rehabilitation fee	Costs incurred for the rehabilitation of patients, including rehabilitation assessment and treatment.
Medication fee	1.Chinese medication fee: the costs of proprietary Chinese medicines and herbal medicines.
	2.Western medicines fee: the costs of organic chemical drugs, inorganic chemical drugs and biological products.
Other fee	1.Blood and blood products fee: costs incurred for clinical use of blood.
	2.Consumables fee: consumables that are allowed to be charged separately by the local health and price management authorities.
	3.Other fee: sum of costs not attributable to the above categories during the patient’s stay in the hospital.