Economic and clinical impact of a controlled sedation procedure in an intensive care unit

Objective. - Since the last consensus conducted by Sfar/SRLF, the use of protocol for sedation became the reference in our ICUs. Decrease in length of stay and length of mechanical ventilation with used of these protocols have been already described. We would like to investigate the economic impact associated. Study design. - Using the PMSI data, we studied retrospectively, the economic effect, one year before and one year after protocol implementation in our ICU. Method. - The economic evaluation compared the cost of sedation but also the cost of mechanical ventilation and length of stay in ICU. Results. - Characteristic and number of patients were equivalent during the two years. We described a significant decrease in length of mechanical ventilation (8.8 vs. 8.4; p < 0.05) but not in length of stay (11.4 vs. 11.7; NS) between the two periods. We described a decrease of sedation cost of 11 412 euros and a decrease of mechanical ventilation cost of 27 360 Euros between the two years. Conclusion. - We confirm in this study that use of sedation protocol in ICU is associated with a clinical impact but also with an economic effect. (C) 2012 Societe francaise d'anesthesie et de reanimation (Sfar). Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.