Australian emergency department care for older adults diagnosed with low back pain of lumbar spine origin: a retrospective analysis of electronic medical record system data (2016–2019)

Table 5 Costs incurred by the hospital

Cost components	Non-specific LBP (n = 693)	Radicular LBP (n = 99)	Serious LBP (n = 32)	All (n = 824)
Clinical staff	3,048 (6,614)	2,293 (4,821)	2,635 (3,189)	2,942 (6,324)
Imaging	363 (820)	279 (613)	211 (296)	347 (784)
Pathology	215 (551)	165 (424)	208 (317)	208 (530)
Medication	124 (603)	62 (142)	44 (58)	114 (556)
Other*	2,092 (4,647)	1,646 (3,241)	1,519 (1,827)	2,016 (4,423)
Total	5,844 (12,574)	4,447 (8,840)	4,620 (5,325)	5,629 (11,982)

Abbreviations: LBP: low back pain; AUS: Australian dollar
Costs are in AUD; Clinical staff cost includes medical, nursing, allied health, critical care, and surgery
* includes: hospital overhead-costs, costs associated with facility maintenance, non-clinical and administration costs, surgical equipment and prostheses, ward supplies, emergency department supplies, average cost of all depreciation, staff leave, insurance cost and interest
Data are mean (SD) total cost per presentation and costs per component of care, for each low back pain category, in the 2019/2020 financial year

ISSN: 1471-227X