Table 2.

Direct costs

COST	SOURCE	DESCRIPTION
Hand-held blood analyzer (i- STAT), cartridges	Charts plus cost information from i-STAT	Includes the cost of the cartridges used by patients and the cost of the analyzer itself
Nursing costs	Nursing time logs	Includes interviews with patients; coordinating care at admission; home visits (including time spent caring for patients, travel time, and gas costs); telephone calls to patients; care planning; communication with families, pharmacists, and residents at time of discharge; and documentation
Physiotherapy, consultants	Charts plus HBIC budget
Pharmacist’s time	Pharmacist’s time log
Laboratory tests*	Charts (2005), fee schedule	Tests were costed using a current fee schedule
CCAC (home services)†	CCAC	Services included physiotherapy, nursing visits, and personal support services
Patient-specific costs, medical supplies	Charts plus HBIC budget	Includes wheelchair transportation to patient’s residence, ambulance or taxi transportation for appointments and tests, and rental costs for intravenous pumps, when necessary

CCAC—Community Care Access Centre.

^*Laboratory tests ordered in hospital are included in the cost of hospitalization. For comparison, we also included the cost of tests ordered using a current Ontario Fee Schedule, even though the costs were not paid for out of our budget.

^†Because equivalent costs if administered in hospital would be included in hospitalization costs, we included the costs of CCAC services in HBIC costs. Seventeen of our 44 patients used CCAC services, including physiotherapy, nursing visits, and personal support services. Average CCAC costs (when used) were $186 and reflected about 18% of total direct costs.