Abstract

Introduction: The Critical Care Unit (CCU) represents a highly complex service. Organizing an advanced staff that can cater to critically ill patients, as well as providing care management, requires the efficient use of human and financial resources. Objective: To carry out an economic evaluation of costs associated with the hospital stay of adult users admitted to the CCU of a public hospital of the Chilean health network. Material and method: The population consisted of 194 users. An economic cost evaluation that included direct and indirect costs and human resources was carried out, using the perspective of the health provider for the period January-March 2017. The costs were calculated in Chilean pesos (CLP). The bed-day value was estimated through the proportional calculation of the total cost over the number of available units. Results: The cost of hospital stay/day in the CCU is $351,735 CLP. The unit with the highest level of CCU usability is the adult emergency unit, which registers 47.7% of the monthly expenditures. The Relative Risk (RR) of having a lengthy stay is greater if the user comes from the adult emergency service: RR=1.07 (CI 95%: 0.51-2.26) or if they have a sepsis diagnosis RR=2.08 (CI 95%: 0.91-4.73). Conclusions: The economic evaluation offers an interesting perspective for improving resource management at the hospital level and should be considered for health decision-making.