The cost-benefit analysis of a coronary care unit

Abstract

A five-bedded coronary care unit located in a general medical ward in a district general hospital has been subjected to a cost-benefit analysis and the results expressed in cost per life saved, assuming that the only benefit of the unit was resuscitation from cardiac arrest with survival to leave hospital. Direct costs were 320 per life saved. Indirect costs were also incurred because the existence of the unit resulted in the admission of patients who would otherwise have been treated at home, though this was mitigated by a reduction in mean length of stay during the first five years of the p unit's existence. Net indirect costs were £220 per life saved, giving a total cost of £540 per life saved. It is suggested that this kind of outcome analysis by survival could be used to assess the performance of other types of coronary care unit and of other forms of expensive medical treatment.