RT Book, Section A1 Coughlin, Michael T. A1 Angus, Derek C. A2 Hall, Jesse B. A2 Schmidt, Gregory A. A2 Wood, Lawrence D.H. SR Print(0) ID 2284156 T1 Chapter 2. Assessing Cost Effectiveness in the Intensive Care Unit T2 Principles of Critical Care, 3e YR 2005 FD 2005 PB The McGraw-Hill Companies PP New York, NY SN 9780071416405 LK accessanesthesiology.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=2284156 RD 2023/03/23 AB The care of critically ill patients in the modern ICU results in a large societal burden in terms of both manpower and monetary cost.The high cost of critical care can largely be attributed to high overhead costs (e.g., need for experienced staff and expensive equipment), high resource utilization (e.g., drugs, lab tests, and complex imaging procedures), and an ever-growing demand for ICU services.Complex economic analysis of health care decision making can be reduced to two fundamental questions that need to be answered: First, “Is a therapy worth using when compared with the alternatives?" The second question is broader and asks “Should a portion of available health care resources be allocated to a given therapy or program?”Routine incorporation of Cost Effectiveness studies is important to the conduct of high quality clinical trials research in the intensive care unit. Inclusion of cost effectiveness gives the clinician the opportunity to fully assess the effect of a new therapy in the ICU.