Evaluating intensive care unit medication charges in a teaching hospital in Jordan

ABSTRACT

Background: Intensive Care Unit (ICU) medication costs contribute to a large portion of the total ICU costs. Evaluating ICU drug expenditures is essential for optimal resource use especially in countries with limited resources. Considering the dearth of data regarding ICU medication expenses in the Middle East, we sought to evaluate ICU medication charges at a large academic hospital in Jordan.

Methods: ICU drug charges were extracted from the hospital administration database at King Abdullah University Hospital for 2014–2015 fiscal years (FYs). ICU drug charges were compared to non-ICU drug charges that were incurred during the same patient admissions. ICU medications with the most significant charges were identified. The most frequent diagnoses with the highest ICU medication charges were described.

Results: Average ICU medication charges per day were approximately twice that of non-ICU medication charges ($121.5 versus $55.7 in 2014 and $100.2 versus $52.2 in 2015; p < 0.001 in both FYs). Meropenem and human albumin were the most expensive ICU medications. Drug charge allocation was most expensive for sepsis, motor vehicle accidents and respiratory failure.

Conclusion: Drug charges in the ICU are considerably higher than non-ICU drug charges, thus requiring more vigilant cost containment approaches. Further research is needed to evaluate the appropriateness of expensive ICU medications.

KEYWORDS:

• Charges
• drugs
• Jordan
• intensive care unit

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Author contributions

SA, RA, and QA were involved in the study conception and design. All authors were involved in the analysis and interpretation of the data, drafting of the paper and revising it critically for intellectual content. All authors gave the final approval of the version to be published and all authors agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by the Deanship of Scientific Research at Jordan University of Science and Technology (grant number 358/2016).