Urgent need for standardised guidelines for reporting healthcare costs in ICUs - Results of an integrative review of costing methodologies.

OBJECTIVES

Diverse costing methodologies in critical care have produced discrepant results. We aimed to critically review studies addressing critical care patients' costs, to estimate total costs and cost categories and to delineate methodologies used and relevant limitations.

METHODS

Integrative review based on key-word searches of electronic databases targeting primary studies that report estimates of patient cost, in the last 21 years. We assessed the level transparency of reporting and the quality of the studies, by the SIGN tool.

RESULTS

Overall, 12 research articles were included, of which eight studies mentioned the specific approach used to identify the elements of cost. Most studies employed a micro-costing and one study a macro-costing approach. With regard to approaches to valuation of cost components, only one study identified the bottom-up approach. The total patient cost ranged from US$ 487 to US$ 39,300 and human resources was identified as the cost category mostly driving total costs.

CONCLUSIONS

Although valid methodologies to evaluate critical care patients' costs, such as micro-costing, are employed more frequently, a variety of non-standardized methods are still used. There is a pressing need to develop standardised guidelines for reporting of observational studies of cost in healthcare, with particular considerations for critical care.