The evolution of Australian intensive care and its related costs: AÂ narrative review

Intensive care is a highly specialised medical field, which has developed rapidly and plays an increasingly important role in the provision of hospital care. Despite the increasing importance of the specialty and the known resource intensity there is a paucity of data on the cost of providing this service. In Australia, staffing costs consistently represent the majority of costs associated with operating an ICU. This finding should be interpreted cautiously given the variation of methods used to cost ICU services and the limited number of available studies. Developing standardised methods to consistently estimate ICU costs which can be incorporated in research into the cost-effectiveness of alternate practice is an important step to ensuring cost-effective care.