Outpatient Care Underused in Treatment of Teens with Pelvic Inflammatory Disease

	Tweet

Hospitalizing teen girls with pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) costs six times as much as treating them in the emergency room, and up to 12 times more than treating them in an outpatient clinic, according to a small study conducted at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.

The findings, published online in the December issue of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, are based on an analysis of 172 patient visits among 152 girls, 12 to 21 years of age, with PID.

The researchers say the study underscores the need for earlier diagnosis and treatment of these patients not only to help contain costs, but also, more importantly, to prevent PID complications like chronic pelvic pain and infertility. 

“The dollar cost of PID hospitalizations and ER care is important, but at the same time we should take steps to individualize PID care and tailor it to each girl’s specific age and circumstances to help her understand how to prevent this from happening again,” says lead investigator Maria Trent, M.D., M.P.H., a Hopkins Children’s pediatrician who studies teen sexual and reproductive health.

Of the 135 outpatient visits in the study, only 14 involved visits to a regular clinic, while 121 were visits to the emergency room, probably signaling lack of reliable primary care for many of the teens in the study, the researchers say. Outpatient visits cost on average $701, compared with $1,382 for treatment in the emergency room.

By comparison, inpatient treatment in the hospital costs on average $8,480 per patient per episode. Thirty-seven of the 172 visits resulted in hospitalizations because of severe or advanced PID. Hospital charges were even higher - $13,360 - for a small subset of girls with PID who required treatment on a psychiatric unit, a finding that suggests how vulnerable sexually active teens with mental health disorders might be.

PID, an inflammation of the reproductive organs, is a complication of untreated sexually transmitted infections like chlamydia and gonorrhea, among other bacterial infections, and affects more than 1 million women in the United States each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 100,000 of these women develop fertility problems as a result of their infections.

Co-investigators on the study included Jonathan Ellen, M.D., of Hopkins Children’s, and Kevin Frick, Ph.D., of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

###

Source: Johns Hopkins Medicine

RELATED STORIES:
Pill Among Least Effective Birth Control Methods   70 percent of women use contraceptives during their first sexual encounter   Long-term contraception more effective than pills   Gay couples and women over 40 to get free IVF treatment on NHS   Health secretary urges contraception compromise   Contraceptive ring, patch carry blood clot risks   Reminder Stamp Boosts HPV Vaccination   Study adds to evidence on clot risks of non-oral contraceptives   HPV vaccine completion rate among girls is poor, getting worse   Some ob-gyns cite religious conflicts over care   After IVF, some couples get pregnant without help   Web Tool Offers Map to Menopause   Early Menopause Could Also Mean Early Death   Does soy help cool hot flashes after all?   Caffeine not tied to worsening urinary incontinence

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]