Retinopathy of prematurity: the high cost of screening regional and remote infants

Autor: Glen A. Gole, Tzu-Ying Yu, Tim Donovan, Nigel R Armfield
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Zdroj: Clinical & Experimental Ophthalmology. 46:645-651
ISSN: 1442-6404
DOI: 10.1111/ceo.13160
Popis: Demand for Retinopathy of Prematurity screening, is increasing for infants born at rural and regional hospitals where the service is not generally available. The health system cost for screening regional/remote infants has not been reported. The objective of this study is to evaluate the cost of Retinopathy of Prematurity screening at a large centralised tertiary neonatal service for infants from regional/rural hospitals. This is a retrospective study to establish the cost of transferring regional/rural infants to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital for ROP screening over a 28 month period. 131 infants were included in this study. Individual infant costs were calculated from analysis of clinical and administrative records. Economic cost of ROP screening for all transfers from regional/rural hospitals to Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital. The average economic cost of ROP screening for this cohort was AUD$5110 per infant screened and the total cost was AUD$669,413. The average cost per infant screened was highest for infants from a regional centre with a population of 75,000 (AUD$14,856 per child), which was also geographically furthest from Brisbane. No infant in this cohort transferred from a regional nursery reached criteria for intervention for ROP by standard guidelines. Health system costs for ROP screening of remote infants at a centralised hospital are high. Alternative strategies using telemedicine can now be compared with centralized screening.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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