Gunshot Victims Cost One Hospital $672,000 a Month, and It's Only Going Up



A single urban trauma center that treated nearly 1,000 gunshot victims over a more-than 2-year period spent an average of nearly $675,000 a month on their care, a new report finds.

Over a 27-month period ending in 2018, the total cost of patient treatment for gun-related injuries reached $18.1 million, reported Heather Vallier, MD, of MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, and colleagues during a poster session at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons annual meeting.

Now, thanks to a pandemic-era jump in gun violence, the per-month cost is estimated to surpass $1 million. The hospital (MetroHealth), and taxpayers, will have to eat much of the cost as many of these patients are uninsured.

"We knew it would be a lot of money, but I thought we'd be spending less," Vallier, an orthopedic trauma surgeon, told MedPage Today. "It's a huge economic burden to the hospital system."
https://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/aaos/94317