Estimating Hospital Costs and Other Health Services Expenses of Road Traffic Crashes in Iran, 2009

Road traffic crashes (RTC) are common accidents and lead to a large drain on the healthcare resources in Iran. The aim of this study was to estimate the annual costs of road traffic crashes for Iranian Healthcare system. In this study، we estimated the pre-hospital، hospital and rehabilitation costs of road traffic crashes in Iran in 2009. The data on the number of injuries and deaths resulting from the RTCs were obtained from Iran''s Ministry of Health and Medical Education and from Iran Forensic Medicine Organization. We also reviewed 400 medical records in two large trauma centers to estimate the average costs of patients that were hospitalized after the RTC. In 2009، approximately 2297 individuals died and a further 806922 individuals were injured due to the RTCs. The total healthcare costs of the RTCs were 2952 IR billion Rials (around 295 million USD using an exchange rate of 10. 000 IR Rials for each USD). Most of the total costs (87%) were spent for the hospital costs followed by 12% of the total costs for pre-hospital costs and 1% for rehabilitation costs. RTCs result in an extensive number of deaths and injuries and a large drain on Iran Healthcare resources.