Economic Impact of SDD
Total hospital costs associated with cryoballoon ablation include both the procedure cost and the cost associated with the duration of hospital stay. Since the procedure costs were similar for the SDD and ONS groups, the expense associated with an overnight hospital stay determined the total cost difference to the hospital between SDD and ONS cohorts. The hospital cost savings for each patient who followed a SDD protocol was $917, $1,437, $1,676 for the East Coast, Midwest, and West Coast hospitals, respectively. The one-way economic sensitivity model predicted yearly hospital cost savings as a percentage of SDD patients to every 100 cryoballoon ablation cases/year (Table 4 ). The greatest annual hospital savings were found in the West Coast hospital with savings of $8,381 when 5% of every 100 treated patients followed a SDD protocol to $83,813 in savings when 50% of every 100 treated patients were discharged the same day. The annual savings for the Midwest hospital ranged between $7,185 and $71,850 when 5% to 50% of patients followed a SDD protocol, and from $4,583 to $45,825 when 5% to 50% of cryoballoon ablation patients were discharged the same day as the procedure in the East Coast hospital. The higher the percentage of patients discharged home on the same day the greater the saving for all three hospitals evaluated (Figure 2 ). Although difficult to quantify, a SDD protocol frees a bed for an additional admission. The value of this would depend on the overall hospital census and the type of admission.