The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) manages the Hospital In-Patient Enquiry (HIPE) scheme. This is a computerised health information system designed to collect clinical and administrative data on discharges from over 60 acute hospitals in Ireland.
This article reports on an analysis of HIPE data on discharges, including deaths in hospital, of cases with an alcohol-related diagnosis in the years 2005–2008, in order to assess the burden of alcohol-related morbidity on Irish hospitals. It is important to note that, because the HIPE scheme does not record attendances at emergency departments, using HIPE data to assess the impact of alcohol use on acute hospital services can lead to an under-estimation of the true extent of the burden.
Conclusion
These results indicate that alcohol-related morbidity is a considerable burden on Irish hospitals, with alcohol-related discharges accounting for 161,016 of all bed days in 2008 at a cost of €143,143,224. The data presented here do not include emergency department presentations; we can therefore conclude that the actual burden of alcohol to acute Irish hospitals is substantially higher.
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