New data reveals what it costs Manitoba for a COVID-19 patient in a hospital

WINNIPEG -- New data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) is giving a glimpse at how much it costs when a COVID-19 case is admitted to hospital – a cost that in Manitoba is more than triple a non-COVID-19 hospitalization.

From January to November 2020, CIHI data shows the average length of stay for a COVID-19-related hospitalization in Manitoba was 12 days.

The province spent an estimated $16.8 million on confirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases in hospitals.

Each of those cases cost an estimated average of $18,913 per case, CIHI data shows. This is more than triple the cost of an average Canadian hospital stay, which CIHI said is about $6,000.

While it is far above the cost of an average non-COVID-19 stay, Manitoba's estimated hospital costs per COVID-19 case were among the lowest in the country – beat only by Saskatchewan which saw an estimated average cost per COVID-19 case in hospital of $17,572.

CIHI said the standard cost of a COVID-19–related hospitalization in Canada is estimated at $23,000 per stay.

The CIHI data shows Manitoba's COVID-19 hospitalizations with an ICU admission cost an estimated average of $43,944 per stay.

In total, CIHI data shows the province spent an estimated $6.7 million on COVID-19 hospitalizations with ICU admission.

MANITOBA AMONG THE HIGHEST PERCENTAGE OF COVID-19 DEATHS IN HOSPITAL

The new data shows Manitoba had among the highest percentage of deaths among COVID-19 hospital admissions of any province in Canada.

The data shows between January to November 2020, there were 913 admissions to Manitoba hospitals with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19.

Of those cases, 16.4 per cent died in hospital. This is among the highest percentages of COVID-19 hospitalization deaths in Canada, behind Alberta which had 18.1 per cent, and Ontario which had 21.1 per cent.

The CIHI data provided more information on the outcomes of the Manitobans with COVID-19 admitted to intensive care.

It shows from January to November 2020, 152 people with COVID-19 were admitted to ICU, including 98 ICU admissions who were on a ventilator.

The average length of stay in the ICU was just over eight days.

While the majority of admissions were either discharged home (27.6 per cent) or transferred to other inpatient care areas (30.3 per cent), more than 40 per cent of the admissions died in the facility.

METHODOLOGY

The data was compiled through the Discharge Abstract Database (DAD) at the Canadian Institute for Health Information for all provinces except Quebec. CIHI said this database administrative, clinical and demographic information on hospital discharges (including deaths, sign-outs, and transfers).

CIHI said the information for April to November 2020 is from provisional data. CIHI said provisional data is preliminary as it is received before an official annual deadline. It said provisional data is more timely, but may be less complete.

Estimated costs for COVID-19 hospitalizations were found by estimating the cost of a standard hospital (CSHS) stay by the patient's resource intensity weight (RIW). CIHI said because CSHS is not available for 2020-2021, it estimated the costs using forecasted provincial CSHS.