Cost analysis associated with biological risk type occupational accidents reported in a High-Complexity Hospital during the period from January to August 2024

Objective To characterize and describe the healthcare costs for occupational accidents involving biological risk in a High-Level Hospital in Bogotá, Colombia, in the period of January-August of 2024. Methodology A database containing information on all reported occupational accidents at a High-Level Hospital from January to August 2024 was used. The data was filtered based on the "nature of the injury", including only occupational accidents involving biological risk. Subsequently, billing records for the healthcare costs of each identified case were requested, allowing for an analysis and characterization of the expenses. Results It was found that most of these types of occupational accidents occurred in female workers, among nursing assistants. Older age was associated with a higher average healthcare cost, and it was also observed that men had healthcare costs 1.5 times higher than those of women. This latter finding is not considered representative due to selection bias. Conclusion It was observed that there was a greater report of OA in the female population than in the male population, associated with a greater number of female workers in the Hospital. The positions with more OA reported are those of nursing assistants and nurses, with a higher risk of presenting biological accidents due to greater exposure. There is a wide heterogeneity of care costs due to various interventions performed in hospital care. There is a directly proportional relationship between the cost of care and the age range of the worker. On average men have a higher cost of care than women, however this is not representative due to sample selection bias.