Sources of Variation in Anesthetic Drug Costs

Abstract

The majority of the variation was not described by the models, possibly indicating high per-case random variation. The largest sources of variation identified by our models included attending anesthesiologist, procedure type, and case duration. The difference in cost between institutions was statistically significant but was minor. While many prior studies have found significant savings resulting from cost-reducing interventions, our findings suggest that because the overall cost of anesthetic drugs was small, the savings resulting from interventions focused on the clinical practice of attending anesthesiologists may be negligible, especially in institutions where access to more expensive drugs is already limited. Thus, cost-saving efforts may be better focused elsewhere.

Factors affecting prolonged time to extubation in patients given remimazolam

“…For long-duration general anesthesia using remimazolam, the anesthetic drug cost in Japan may be about 1.5 times or more compared to that of propofol. Wanderer et al [ 18 ] investigated the significant contributors to variation in anesthetic drug cost and concluded that the overall cost of anesthetic drugs was low and that cost-saving efforts may be better focused elsewhere.…”