[Costs of intensive care of premature infants].
It is often pointed that hospitalizations of premature infants generate high costs. It is particularly bothering with reference to neonatal intensive care units (NICU).


OBJECTIVE
Since there is lack of desirable data in Poland, a study was launched in the city of Lódź in order to estimate exact costs of intensive care of premature infants.


METHODS
The study consisted in collecting data cocerning all resources (drugs, materials, medical equipment etc.) used during the hospitalizations of the neonates. It was constructed in a retrospective way, which means that data was collected from the first day of each patient's hospitalization till his or her discharge. The study lasted from 03.10.2004 to 06.04.2005. The study population were neonates borned before 37 week of gestation, who were treated in the Intensive Care Unit of Paediatric University Hospital, Medical University of Lodz. The population consisted of 30 patients borned between 23-36 week of gestation and birthweight between 600g and 3300g.


RESULTS
The structure of costs shows that the most expensive was medical care which constituted 51% of total costs. 90% of neonates costed no more than 30,000 zł and the average cost was 17,633,76 PLN.


CONCLUSIONS
Total cost of hospitalization depends mainly on the length of stay. Among recovered patients hospitalizations lasted from 6 to 125 days. The longest stay costed 90,780 PLN. Detailed analysis is needed to consider if there is feasible possibility to limit time of hospitalizations in order to decrease costs.
Krawczyk-Wyrwicka
Iwona
I
SP ZOZ Uniwersytecki Szpital Kliniczny Nr 4 UM w Lodzi. iakraw@go2.pl
Piotrowski
Andrzej
A
Rydlewska-Liszkowska
Izabela
I
Hanke
Wojciech
W
D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D007224:Infant Care / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007235:Infant, Premature, Diseases / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology; D019102:Infant, Very Low Birth Weight; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015931:Intensive Care, Neonatal / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000191:economics; D008297:Male; D011044:Poland / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies