F. Average Cost Estimates

2. How do you define an acute, short stay hospitalization in the VA?

In the Austin databases, the VA does not distinguish between medical/surgical care and non medical/surgical stays. The VA keeps track of bedsections.  Bedsection is a VA-specific term analogous to a hospital ward; DSS uses the term treating speciality, but the values are the same. Because a patient can get transferred among bedsections multiple times within a single medical/surgical hospital stay, keeping track of bedsections provides us with a great amount of detail.

HERC's definition of medical surgical bedsection includes:

• Medicine Bedsection 1-12, 14-19, 24, 31, 34, 35, 75, 83
• Surgical Bedsection 50-63, 65