Abstract
Objective
To assess patterns of intensive care reimbursement practices.
Methods
A detailed questionnaire about basic intensive care unit (ICU) characteristics and ICU reimbursement practices was created, and then members of the European Society of Intensive Care (ESICM) were asked by e-mail to participate in the survey and complete the web-based questionnaire.
Results
There were a total of 447 responses analyzed. Of respondents, 51.5% stated that their ICU received detailed financial information; however, only 15.4% of respondents could identify each cost item for each patient. A majority of respondents (77.6%) stated that their unit’s reimbursement system was included in the hospital reimbursement. ICU reimbursement systems were most commonly based on previous year’s ICU expenditure (51.0%) and diagnosis-related group weights (36%). Selecting European respondents (n = 306) showed that supplying detailed financial information makes ICU doctors significantly more satisfied (p = 0.019) with their reimbursement system. Regarding ICU funding elements, the most satisfied with their ICU reimbursement system were those respondents from ICUs where nursing workload score was used (p = 0.018).
Conclusions
Our result indicates that ICU physicians who receive detailed financial information about their units are more satisfied with their reimbursement system than those not receiving this information. Nursing workload score may have advantage over other forms of reimbursement practices. ICU physicians would like to be more involved in their unit’s financial aspects and would prefer separate funding from hospital.
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Acknowledgments
Authors would like to thank those ESICM members who participated in this survey.
Members of the Steering Committee
Akos Csomos, Hungary; Guido Bertolini, Italy; Hilmar Burchardi, Germany; Maurizia Capuzzo, Italy; Bertrand Guidet, France; Clare Hibbert, UK; Philipp Metnitz, Austria.
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On behalf of the Research Group on Health Economics of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM).
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Csomos, A., Varga, S., Bertolini, G. et al. Intensive care reimbursement practices: results from the ICUFUND survey. Intensive Care Med 36, 1759–1764 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-010-1911-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-010-1911-8