Zahid Anwar, Tayyaba Khawar Butt.
Cost of patient care in neonatal unit.
Pak Paed J Jan ;33(1):14-8.

Objective: The study was aimed at estimating the average cost of care in the neonatal unit in The Children’s Hospital and The Institute of Child Health, Lahore, Pakistan. Result: 2385 patients admitted over the period of 4 months from Jan-2007 to April-2007 were included. The average cost of care per patient was Rs 1385/- per day and Rs 6509.5/- per admission duration. The maximum expense was by the preterms (Rs 1472.9/-) followed by babies with jaundice (Rs 1254.8/-), asphyxia (Rs 1116.01/-) and sepsis (Rs 1113.9/-). 44.98% of cost was under the category of medicine and consumables, 22% by investigations, 20% staff, 7% machines and 6% by ancillary costs. There were 499 expiries (20.92%). These babies had higher cost of Rs 1667.25/- per patient per day. Prematurity was once again leading with Rs 1854/- followed by deaths due to sepsis and asphyxia with Rs 1585/- and Rs 1525/- respectively. Conclusion: The costs of patient care in our study were much lower when compared to the studies from US, Malaysia and India and multiple factors contribute to it. To compare it is important to have uniform and simple measurements in participating hospitals. There is a need for such studies as these can pave way for quality control efforts and cost effective approaches.

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