ObjectiveTo investigate old (the no less than 60-year-old) inpatient's diseases and cost constitution of a tertiary hospital in West China from 2008 to 2012, so as to provide baseline data for further research. MethodsThe case records of no less than 60-year-old inpatients in the tertiary hospital were collected from 2008 to 2012, and based on the first diagnose, the diseases were classified according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). The data including general information of the inpatients, discharge diagnosis, length of hospital stay and hospitalization costs, were analyzed using Stata10.0 software. Resultsa) The total number of old inpatients was 109 585, and male (59.57%) was more than female (40.43%). The disease spectrum included 18 categories. The percentage of old inpatients increased from 31.57% (2008) to 34.25% (2010). b) The top three systematic diseases were neoplasms, diseases of the circulatory system and diseases of the digestive; the male inpatients were more than the female; the number of inpatients who suffered from the top three systematic diseases got decreased with age increasing; neoplasm was the most common disease, there were 34 944 malignant neoplasm inpatients. c) The cumulative constituent ratio of the top five malignant neoplasms in male and female inpatients were respectively 62.51% and 49.44%; and the top five malignant neoplasms of male inpatients were malignant neoplasm of bronchus and lung, other medical care for neoplasm, malignant neoplasm of esophagus, malignant neoplasm of stomach and malignant neoplasm of prostate. The top five malignant neoplasms of female inpatients were other medical care for neoplasm, malignant neoplasm of bronchus and lung, malignant neoplasm of breast, malignant neoplasm of stomach and malignant neoplasm of cervix uteri. d) The average length of hospital stay decreased from 14.12 days to 11.00 days since 2008, and the average cost per capita increased from ￥14 044.79 yuan to ￥18 932.81 yuan since 2008. The proportion of drug cost of inpatients hospitalization cost decreased from 47.21% to 42.16% since 2008. ConclusionThe male inpatients are more than female in the tertiary hospital from 2008 to 2012. The most common systematic disease is neoplasm, especially the malignant neoplasms with higher constituent ratio. The top five malignant neoplasms of male inpatients and female are different. The average length of stay in hospitals has declined in five years, however the average cost per capita has increased.