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The cost of intensive and special care of the newborn
Author(s) -
Marshall Peter B.,
Halls Heather J.,
James Simon L.,
Grivell Anthony R.,
Goldstein Allan,
Berry Michael N.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1989.tb136694.x
Subject(s) - intensive care , medicine , dependency (uml) , emergency medicine , medical emergency , intensive care medicine , computer science , software engineering
The cost of providing intensive (level‐3) and special (level‐2) care for newborn infants in a tertiary perinatal service was determined prospectively and was expressed in 1984 Australian dollars. Direct costs that were expressed per occupied bed‐day were $690 for level‐3, high‐dependency care; $421 for level‐3, low‐dependency care; $544 for over‐all level‐3 care; $242 for level‐2, high‐dependency care; $170 for level‐2, low‐dependency care; and $201 for over‐all level‐2 care. Each level of care generated additional costs of $42 per occupied bed‐day. Taking these additional costs into account, the over‐all occupied bed‐day cost of level‐3 and level‐2 neonatal care was $339. The major components of this over‐all cost were: nursing staff members, 50%; medical staff members, 11%; consumable and recyclable items, 12%; and diagnostic services, 8%. (Med J Aust 1989; 150: 568‐574)