LAUSR

This study answers the question of whether the healthcare costs of managing COVID-19 in pre-existing cardiovascular diseases (CVD) patients increased or decreased as a consequence of evidence-based efforts to optimize the initial COVID-19 management protocol in a CVD group of patients. A retrospective cohort study was conducted in pre-existing CVD patients with COVID-19 in Hamad Medical Corporation, Qatar. From the healthcare perspective, only direct medical costs were considered, adjusted to their 2021 values. The impact of revising the protocol was a reduction in the overall costs in non-critically ill patients from QAR15,447 (USD4,243) to QAR4,337 (USD1,191) per patient, with an economic benefit of QAR11,110 (USD3,051). In the critically ill patients, however, the cost increased from QAR202,094 (USD55,505) to QAR292,856 (USD80,433) per patient, with added cost of QAR90,762 (USD24,928). Overall, regardless of critical care status, the optimization of the initial COVID-19 protocol in patients with pre-existing CVD did not reduce overall healthcare costs, but increased it by QAR80,529 (USD22,117) per patient.