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Cost Analysis of Parenteral Nutrition Regimens in the Intensive Care Unit: Three‐Compartment Bag System vs Multibottle System
Author(s) -
Menne Roland,
Adolph Michael,
Brock Elisabeth,
Schneider Heinz,
Senkal Metin
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of parenteral and enteral nutrition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.935
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 1941-2444
pISSN - 0148-6071
DOI - 10.1177/0148607108322404
Subject(s) - parenteral nutrition , medicine , compartment (ship) , activity based costing , cost analysis , total cost , equivalence (formal languages) , emergency medicine , surgery , mathematics , operations research , business , oceanography , accounting , marketing , geology , discrete mathematics
Background: Parenteral nutrition (PN) can be administered with separate bottles or as commercially prepared all‐in‐one systems. The aim of this study was to evaluate the overall cost of PN using the 3‐compartment bag vs standard multibottle system. Methods: Overall costs of hospital PN were calculated from expenditures (solutions, consumable items, and staff costs). Time that staff spent preparing the PN was measured to determine personnel costs; bottom‐up costing was used to assign a monetary value. Standard treatment algorithms of a 10‐day course of PN for a standard 70‐kg patient were specified for both systems. One‐way sensitivity analyses were performed to test the robustness of the model's conclusions. Results: The daily total cost of the 3‐compartment bag system was €42.26 per patient whereas the total cost of the separate bottle system was €51.62, resulting in a cost saving of €9.36 per patient with the 3‐compartment bag system. For 10 days of treatment, PN costs €422.51 per patient for the 3‐compartment system vs €516.16 for the multibottle system. Sensitivity analyses showed that the difference in costs between the 2 systems was maintained in the face of changes in patients' nutrition requirements and personnel costs. Conclusions: The costs associated with PN using a 3‐compartment bag system were lower than those associated with a multibottle system. Given the established therapeutic equivalence of the 2 systems, this study shows the 3‐compartment bag system to be the system of choice to reduce costs.