The Cost of Internal and Neurosurgery ICUs in a Selected Teaching Hospital: A Case Study

Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is the most important units in hospitals, which imposes high costs to patients. This unit is considered as one of the high-cost unit for providing End-of-Life Services. The cost analysis of the ICUs can help managers decide on how to provide the services of this unit.

In this descriptive study, the total cost of Internal and Neurosurgery ICUs in a selected teaching hospital affiliated to Iran University of Medical Sciences in 2017, was evaluated using top-down approach. The financial records of the units and data on the cost drivers were collected from accounting and related units, respectively.

About 7% of the total hospital costs was related to the ICUs. The direct costs allocated to the internal and neurosurgery units were about $2261000 and $928000, respectively. Payments, medicines, and hospital consumables had the highest share of costs, respectively. By considering the total costs, the units as well as services studied were loss-making. 

Given that the hospital is a teaching one, teaching students about saving resources reduces the costs. Also, by providing home health care services for patients at the end-of-life stage hospitalized in the ICUs can also help the hospital achieve its financial goals.