Background

Critical care is one of the most expensive health care services globally. In high-income countries (HICs), critical care typically requires high technological equipment and high-skilled human resources. In many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), it is commonly impractical to follow the same procedures owing to limited resources.

In LMICs, more than eight million people die a year that could be prevented by the health care system, which causes an economic loss of US$ 6 trillion. To fully evaluate the effectiveness of the new technology both in terms of utility and economic benefit, it is essential to evaluate the unit cost of ICU care. Currently, this information is sparse and urgently needed. Moreover, there is considerable uncertainty in the ICU cost across diseases and conditions.

Aims

Specifically, we measure the direct medical cost, direct non-medical cost, and productivity cost of patients and informal caregivers during their stay in the ICU compared to when staying in the general ward. Understanding these daily costs incurred by patients will allow us to assess the potential cost savings of new ICU innovations under the VITAL project.