Cataract surgery and effectiveness. 1. Variation in costs between different providers of cataract surgery

Purpose: To describe and analyse the cost of cataract surgery in four commu nity-run eye clinics in Sweden and also to analyse differences in cost betw een these clinics. Methods: The average cost of a cataract surgery episode was calculated incl uding one pre-operative visit, the surgery itself and the post-operative vi sits. Included in the analysis were the costs of disposables, personnel, re nt, depreciation, general anaesthesia, bed days and education. Excluded wer e the costs of complications and overhead costs. Results: The average cost for one cataract surgery episode was 5052/6915 SE K (1 Euro =8.57 SEK) with a variation from 4436/6202 to 6130/8293 between t he clinics. The lower sum represents a minimum cost of personnel, the highe r sum a maximum cost. Conclusion: A large variation in costs of cataract surgery was found in fou r providers of cataract surgery. Nearly all clinics studied had one or more areas with much higher costs than average.