What was this review about?
Intensive care survivors continue to experience significant morbidity following acute hospital discharge. Healthcare costs associated with this ongoing morbidity are poorly described.
As the demand for intensive care increases, understanding the magnitude of post-acute hospital healthcare costs is of increasing relevance to clinicians and healthcare planners.
This review looked at observational studies and randomised trials reporting major healthcare resource use by intensive care survivors following discharge from the hospital. The purpose of the review was to describe resource use and identify factors associated with increased resource use.
What did the review find?
The review identified 14 eligible studies: ten were observational studies and four were randomised trials.
Wide variation in methodological approaches limited study comparability and external validity of findings. There was substantial variation in costs, especially among countries.
The authors recommended that careful description of patient cohorts and healthcare systems is required to maximise generalisability. A more standardised approach to improve design and reporting of future studies was recommended.