Waitlisted patients cost isle hospitals $62M a year

Hawaii’s health care providers are losing $62.7 million a year to care for patients who remain in a hospital even though they no longer need acute-care services, a new report shows.

The lack of long-term care and other community services drove up the number of so-called waitlisted patients by 11 percent from 2006 to 2011, according to the latest data available from the Hawaii Health Information Corp., which reviewed hospital discharge data.

"What we found is that ultimately, hospitals bear the cost of waitlisted patients," said Peter Sybin­sky, HHIC’s president and chief executive officer. "Until more funded community-based treatment alternatives are available, the data indicates we will continue to see unnecessary and inefficient use of Hawaii’s most expensive health care resources."

Waitlist patients need treatment but are not severe enough to require inpatient care. They are admitted and kept in hospitals largely because there are not enough lower-level care options, HHIC said.

The result is patients receiving care in an inappropriate setting and at a much higher cost, said George Greene, president and chief executive officer of the Healthcare Association of Hawaii.

"The waitlist issue is a problem for most, if not all, hospitals in the state," he said. "Moving forward, the association will be part of the dialogue with key stakeholders to address these issues."

Major barriers to reducing the number of waitlisted patients include insufficient higher-level staff and specialty equipment in nursing homes and other facilities to meet complex patient needs; the high cost of medicines; and lack of community-based resources to support the mentally ill, HHIC said.

In 2011 there were 7,055 patients discharged after being waitlisted, an 11 percent increase from 2006, when hospitals reported an annual loss of $55.4 million. In the five years thereafter, the average annual loss was $64.6 million. The average age of patients was 70.