The medical cost of drug abuse in an inner-city community

The discharge diagnoses of the patients in this survey represent a wide spectrum of conditions. They are fairly typical of the known complications of drug abuse, especially the infectious conditions. The Harlem Hospital Center had an average daily census of 620.1 patients in general care beds during the year 1975. Based on data from November 1976, drug abusers can be estimated to have absorbed 20,144 days of inpatient care in a community which is high at risk for health problems in general, and which has limited medical resources. At the medicaid reimbursement rate of $215.83, the costs of inpatient treatment for the medical complications of drug abusers were $4.35 million dollars. This suggests that even the most cavalier estimate to date of the medical costs of drug abuse nationally, $494 million, is likely to be severely underestimated. Previous estimates of medical care costs have not taken into account the significant percentage of patients who will require chronic care, either because of associated alcoholism or other conditions; nor have they included the medical care costs of the children of drug abusers. Better methods of identifying and reporting the medical complications of drug abuse are necessary to accurately gauge the cost of drug abuse to society. Further research into current and alternative treatment modalities is also indicated in the hope of achieving earlier intervention or altogether preventing the medical complications of drug abuse.