Hospitals Treat More Than Half a Million Patients for Diabetes

AHRQ News and Numbers

Release Date: October 18, 2005   

According to the Federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, there were over 500,000 hospitalizations for diabetes in 2003, ranking diabetes among the top 20 conditions treated in U.S. hospitals.

• The most common procedure performed on patients hospitalized for diabetes mellitus with complications was amputation of a lower extremity. Nearly 10 percent of patients hospitalized for diabetes with complications underwent this procedure in 2003. 
• Seven of every 10 patients hospitalized for diabetes with complications was first seen in the emergency department. This is a 22 percent increase from 1999 when 5 of every 10 were admitted from the emergency department.
• The "National Bill" for hospital stays for diabetes with complications totaled $10 billion. From a national perspective, diabetes with complications ranked as the 17th most expensive condition.
• The mean charge for hospital stays for diabetes with complications was about $20,700. The charge varied by payer type:
  • Medicare—$24,000
  • Medicaid—$20,500
  • Private insurers—$17,400
  • Uninsured—$16,100

Internet Citation:

Hospitals Treat More Than Half a Million Patients for Diabetes. AHRQ News and Numbers, October 18, 2005. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/news/nn/nn101805.htm