Comments(1)

Cost of ICU care: Hospital Length of stay as common denominator

Uchenna Ofoma   (28 June 2007)  Maimonides Medical Centre

Moerer et al did very well in their attempt to estimate the real costs per patient per day of intensive care therapy. Their findings of common cost patterns (reason for admission, occurrence of severe sepsis, etc) that were independent of ICU type or hospital category were however not surprising and can clearly be generalized to most ICUs. In the real world, whether the figures for intensive care costs are computed on an individual patient basis or on a hospital basis, the denominators remain the same. Length of stay (as weighted hospital days or WHD) appears to be a common denominator among all factors in contributing to increased hospital costs. (1)

To a reasonable extent factors that impact on this index are predictable.(2) Focusing on the modifiable factors as a way of reducing length of stay without without adversely affecting quality of care remains the surest way of reducing costs.

(1)Rapoport J, Teres D, Zhao Y, Lemeshow S: Length of stay data as a guide to hospital economic performance for ICU patients. Med Care 2003,

41:386-397

(2)Higgins TL, McGee WT, Steingrub JS, Rapoport J, Lemeshow S, Teres D:

Early indicators of prolonged intensive care unit stay: impact of illness severity, physician staffing, and pre-intensive care unit length of stay.

Crit Care Med 2003, 31:45-51

Competing interests

None

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