The average length of stay for hospital discharges with any injury diagnosis was approximately 6 days in 2011. Injuries other than musculoskeletal had a slightly longer length of stay of just over 6 days, while musculoskeletal injury patients had an average of slightly more than 5 days. Increasing age was associated with a longer stay, with the longest average stays reported by persons in the 45- to 74-year range. The type of injury also had an impact on length of stay, with open wounds resulting in the longest hospital stay among musculoskeletal injuries. The range for all types of injuries varied between 4 and 7 days. (Reference Table 6A.4.1.1 PDF [1] CSV [2])
Average hospital charges1 were also slightly higher for patients with non-musculoskeletal injuries, which include brain and spinal injuries, with the exception of average charges for fracture injury patients. However, because of the much higher number of musculoskeletal injury patient stays, the overall total hospital charges for treatment of musculoskeletal injuries were almost twice those of non-musculoskeletal injuries in 2010.
Average total hospital charges for musculoskeletal injuries were $48,700, while they were $52,900 for non-musculoskeletal injuries. The highest average hospital charges were $73,300 for those aged 18 to 44 hears being treated for dislocations.
Total cost for inpatient hospital care for injuries in 2011 was more than $123 million, with musculoskeletal injuries accounting for two-thirds of this total. Fractures, with more than $59.5 million in total hospital charges in 2011, accounted for 72% of musculoskeletal injury charges and nearly one-half (48%) of all injury charges. Increasing age was associated with a steady increase in the proportion of charges for musculoskeletal injury to all injury hospital discharges and in the share of total charges.
Links:
[1] https://bmus.latticegroup.com/docs/T6A.4.1.1.pdf
[2] https://bmus.latticegroup.com/docs/T6A.4.1.1.csv