Average Cost Of A Day In Critical Care
A patient may be required to be admitted in critical care when he or she undergoes a very serious surgical operation such as a coronary artery bypass. Patients may be advised to stay for 3 or 4 days in the critical care unit depending on the seriousness and the recovery that the patient shows. |
Nevertheless, this is not easy for most middle class Americans as the cost of health care has increased significantly since the 1980s; more so with the recent economic recession from which the world is still recovering.
The critical care unit is so costly because it is there that new drugs, expensive and costly medicines and technologies are used for each patient. The average cost per day per patient in the ICU has been calculated to be about $2,401. There has been rising concern on the increasing health costs in the country. This is particularly seen in terminally ill patients, whose death seems imminent. These patients are often admitted into the ICU despite knowing about their terminal illness.
In most US hospitals, the average cost per day in critical care unit is $2,000 to $ 3,000. Therefore, physicians can probably think of other palliative measures. The physician should be able to make the patients family understand the importance of this, when other forms of restorative treatment seem unavailable for the patient. Also, terminal care can be provided in non-ICU environments in most cases, such as where care at home is possible. Despite this, it is very often difficult to make the decision between the ICU and the non-ICU environment for recovery.
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