Intensive care units (ICUs) have become an increasingly important part of the American health care delivery system. In 2000, critical care cost $55.5 billion—13.3 percent of total hospital costs and half a percent of the United States’ gross domestic product. As the population continues to age and the severity of hospital cases continues to increase, the role of the intensive care in hospital e...

Sabrina Strang,* Jörg Gross,* Teresa Schuhmann, Arno Riedl, Bernd Weber, and Alexander T. Sack Center for Economics and Neuroscience, University of Bonn, 53127 Bonn, Germany, Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands, Department of Economics (AE1), School of Business and Economics, Maastricht Universi...

Background and Objectives: Efficient hospital management requires appropriate cost and price strategies. Informed decision on costs and prices of healthcare services needs estimation of costs of unit services using microeconomic techniques. There is lack of knowledge and skills for such costing methods in the healthcare sector of developing countries such as Iran. This study aims at detail des...

OBJECTIVE To present a hypothetical model of the change in economic costs and health benefits to society that result from nosocomial infection control programs. DESIGN We use a modeling framework to represent how 2 types of costs change with nosocomial infection control programs: costs incurred by the hospital sector and community health services, as well as the private costs to patients. We ...

Hospital medical staff privileges are granted to physicians who are able to provide quality patient care. Although there are no hard and fast rules as to what factors are considered when hospitals credential physicians, the perception and general practice has been that training, experience, and clinical competence are of primary importance. To foster aggressive peer review and credentialing pra...

RAPID AND RADICAL CHANGE in almost every facet of society has brought in its wake community anxiety, suspicion and hostility. Current examples in Australia include the impact of globalisation, the introduction of the goods and services tax, and the actions of the banks in phasing out local branches. Even the health industry faces increased levels of public scrutiny and criticism. A recent examp...

BACKGROUND Many people with intellectual disability present with challenging behaviour which often has serious consequences such as the prescription of long term medication, in-patient admissions and disruption of normal daily activities. Small scale studies of Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) delivered by paid carers suggest that it reduces challenging behaviour and costs of care and improves ...

1 Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Medical Technology Assessment, University Hospital Maastricht, Maastricht, The Netherlands 2 Department of Epidemiology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands 3 Department of Health Organization Policy and Economics, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands 4 Care and Public Health Research Institute, Department of General Practic...