Cost-effectiveness of intensive care for respiratory failure patients

Are Aggressive Treatment Strategies Less Cost‐Effective for Older Patients? The Case of Ventilator Support and Aggressive Care for Patients with Acute Respiratory Failure

“…Several prior investigations have demonstrated that outcomes of intensive care and mechanical ventilation vary according to diagnosis, severity of acute illness, and age 1–3,7,25–28 . Similar to our findings, prior research has shown good functional outcomes and long‐term survival for patients with respiratory failure who survive the index hospitalization 1,26,27,29 . A recent study by Ely et al examined resource use and survival for patients treated with mechanical ventilation and found that patients who were 75 and older had similar survival but lower costs of care than patients younger than 75 30 …”

“…[1][2][3]7,[25][26][27][28] Similar to our findings, prior research has shown good functional outcomes and long-term survival for patients with respiratory failure who survive the index hospitalization. 1,26,27,29 A recent study by Ely et al examined resource use and survival for patients treated with mechanical ventilation and found that patients who were 75 and older had similar survival but lower costs of care than patients younger than 75. 30 Prior studies also have shown that the incremental cost-effectiveness of more aggressive treatment strategies varies widely according to patients' characteristics and severity of illness.…”

“…Seriously ill patients, their families, and their physicians often face difficult decisions about whether to initiate life‐sustaining treatments. Even though mechanical ventilation and intensive care can restore patients with acute respiratory failure to good function and quality of life, 1 many patients die despite prolonged and expensive treatment 2 . Most of the dollars spent on the treatment of patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome are devoted to patients who die in the hospital 2 .…”

A new method of accurately identifying costs of individual patients in intensive care: the initial results

“…These include the use of average costs obtained from dividing total annual expenditure by patient throughput [6], the use of severity of illness and workload scoring systems [7][8][9] and the use of billing systems [10]. These studies have identified the costs of intensive care in isolation, without considering their application and validity in the strategic planning and management of services.…”

Mechanically assisted ventilation in a community hospital. Immediate outcome, hospital charges, and follow-up of patients

“…The first 100 patients undergoing mechanically assisted ventila¬ tion at a medium-sized (250 beds; 14 ICU beds) community hospital were studied from Jan 1,1980, through Aug 1,1980 Figure 3 illustrates the distribution of these charges in survivors and nonsurvivors. On the average, hospitaliza¬ tion charges for the survivors exceeded those of nonsur¬ vivors by $3,600 (Table 2).…”