A self-reported work sampling to assess the Emergency Department’s costs

Emergency Department (ED) activity involves a consistent absorption of resources varying from medical staff to laundry services. Moving from the consideration that staff cost is the most relevant item among those reported in the ED balance sheet, we have conducted a statistical survey in one of the most relevant Italian ED with the goal of providing an accurate estimation of the cost incurred by ED according to the patient severity type (measured by the triage coding).The main contribution of the present paper consists in suggesting a new methodological approach to the ED cost analysis. Personnel and other costs are jointly considered in order to define, by the use of two different cost modeling scenarios, a per patient standard cost which takes into account the patient type and outcome.