Identifying and Controlling Exorbitant Costs in the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit (NSICU)

摘要

Background. With health care costs skyrocketing and a need to care for an increasing population of critically ill neurosurgical patients, evaluation of quality outcomes and expenses must be done carefully. Drug cost containment and length of stay (LOS) inefficiencies are 2 logical areas for consideration. Intervention detail. Two separate quality improvement initiatives were evaluated and were concatenated, per UHC suggestions, into a single abstract. The first initiative involved 1157 patients who were admitted to a neurocritical care unit over the course of an academic year. During that year, monthly drug expense reports were generated about the prior month and year-to-date medication usage. The top 10 most expensive and most used drugs were identified and less expensive alternatives were used when possible. The second initiative involved all 3505 patients in the neuroscience inpatient service line.