Improvement in mortality at a National Burn Centre since 2000: Was it the result of increased resources?

The aim of this study was to find out whether the charging costs (calculated using interventional burn score) increased as mortality decreased. During the last 2 decades, mortality has declined significantly in the Linköping Burn Centre. The burn score that we use has been validated as a measure of workload and is used to calculate the charging costs of each burned patient. We compared the charging costs and mortality in 2 time periods (2000–2007 and 2008–2015). A total of 1363 admissions were included. We investigated the change in the burn score, as a surrogate for total costs per patient. Multivariable regression was used to analyze risk-adjusted mortality and burn score. The median total body surface area % (TBSA%) was 6.5% (10–90 centile 1.0–31.0), age 33 years (1.3–72.2), duration of stay/ TBSA% was 1.4 days (0.3–5.3), and 960 (70%) were males. Crude mortality declined from 7.5% in 2000–2007 to 3.4% in 2008–2015, whereas the cumulative burn score was not increased (P = .08). Regression analysis showed that risk-adjusted mortality decreased (odds ratio 0.42, P = .02), whereas the adjusted burn score did not change (P = .14, model R(2) 0.86). Mortality decreased but there was no increase in the daily use of resources as measured by the interventional burn score. The data suggest that the improvements in quality obtained have been achieved within present routines for care of patients (multidisciplinary/orientated to patients’ safety).