Prolonged stays of OB/GYN patients in the surgical intensive care unit. A cost-benefit analysis.

OBJECTIVE

To delineate costs between various obstetric and gynecologic (OB/GYN) patients with stays in the surgical intensive care unit (SICU).

STUDY

DESIGN

A chart review identified 86 OB/GYN patients who had a minimum SICU stay of three days between January 1987 and May 1992.

RESULTS

Our study showed that the total cost of these cases was $3,344,010, with a median of $29,780 (range, $20,230-180,610) and that the difference between patients with malignancies and those without (median, $20,340) was not statistically significant (P = .11). However, cases of malignant disease that had either a prexisting medical condition or an SICU stay of more than five days cost more than any other cases (P = .038). The SICU share of total hospital cost ranged from 20.7% in patients with malignancy to 40% in patients without malignancy.

CONCLUSION

As health care costs come under closer scrutiny, the critically ill patient should not be placed at risk of lessened chances of survival because perceived savings result in decreasing quality of care.