Journal of critical care
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Journal of critical care · Apr 2018
Healthcare costs of ICU survivors are higher before and after ICU admission compared to a population based control group: A descriptive study combining healthcare insurance data and data from a Dutch national quality registry.
To identify subgroups of ICU patients with high healthcare utilization for healthcare expenditure management purposes such as prevention and targeted care. ⋯ ICU patients have three to five times higher healthcare costs per day alive compared to a control population. Our findings can be used to optimize the healthcare trajectories of ICU patients with high healthcare utilization after discharge.
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Journal of critical care · Apr 2018
Early vs. late tracheostomy in intensive care settings: Impact on ICU and hospital costs.
Up to 12% of the 800,000 patients who undergo mechanical ventilation in the United States every year require tracheostomies. A recent systematic review showed that early tracheostomy was associated with better outcomes: more ventilator-free days, shorter ICU stays, less sedation and reduced long-term mortality. However, the financial impact of early tracheostomies remain unknown. ⋯ This study shows that early tracheostomy can significantly reduce direct variable and likely total hospital costs in the intensive care unit based on length of stay alone. This is in addition to the already shown benefits of early tracheostomy in terms of ventilator dependent days, reduced length of stays, decreased pain, and improved communication. Further prospective studies on this topic are needed to prove the cost-effectiveness of early tracheostomy in the critically ill population.