Key clinical point: Identification of a small group of high-need, high-cost patients who are often hospitalized may help to pave the way to developing programs that improve the quality of care of such patients while also reducing the cost of care of all lupus patients.

Major finding: The high-risk systemic lupus erythematosus patients spent a significantly greater amount of time in the hospital than did other patients (median of 30 days vs. 5 days), and their median cost was more than six times as great ($95,262 vs. $14,360).

Study details: A retrospective cohort study of 202 lupus patients with 467 hospitalizations during a 3-year period at a tertiary care center.

Disclosures: The study involved no outside source of funding, and the authors had no relevant conflicts of interest.