• Kate Curtis, Prabhu Sivabalan, David S Bedford, Julie Considine, Alfa D'Amato, Nada Shepherd, Tiana Elphick, Ramon Z Shaban, and Margaret Fry.
• Susan Wakil School of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia; Emergency Services, Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District, Wollongong Hospital, Crown St, Wollongong, NSW, Australia; Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, Building 32 University of Wollongong, Northfields Avenue, Wollongong, NSW, Australia; George Institute for Global Health, University of NSW, Australia; Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Wollongong, Northfields Avenue, Wollongong, NSW, Australia. Electronic address: Kate.Curtis@sydney.edu.au.
• Resuscitation. 2021 Sep 1; 166: 49-54.

AimsThis study aimed to quantify the health economic treatment costs of clinical deterioration of patients within 72 h of admission via the emergency department.MethodsThis study was conducted between March 2018 and February 2019 in two hospitals in regional New South Wales, Australia. All patients admitted via the emergency department were screened for clinical deterioration (defined as initiation of a medical emergency team call, cardiac arrest or unplanned admission to Intensive Care Unit) within 72 h through the site clinical deterioration databases. Patient characteristics, including pre-existing conditions, diagnosis and administrative data were collected.Results1600 patients clinically deteriorated within 72 h of hospital admission. Linked treatment cost data were available for 929 (58%) of these patients across 352 Australian Refined Diagnosis Related Groups. The average (standard deviation) treatment costs for patients who deteriorated within 72 h was $26,778 ($34,007) compared to $7727 ($12,547). The average hospital length of stay of the deterioration group was nearly 8 days longer than patients without deterioration. When controlling for length of stay and Australian Refined Diagnosis Related Group codes, the incremental cost per episode of deterioration was $14,134.ConclusionClinical deterioration within 72 h of admission is associated with increased treatment costs irrespective of diagnosis, hospital length of stay and age. Implementation of interventions known to prevent patient deterioration require evaluation.Crown Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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