Costs of Intensive Care Units and Effective Cost Containment Approaches: A Systematic Review

Year 2025, Volume: 15 Issue: 2, 749 - 760, 30.05.2025

Doğancan Çavmak

Abstract

Objective: Intensive care units are one of the most complex and critical service production areas that incur high levels of resource consumption in hospitals. This study aims to analyze the cost structures of intensive care units, and to examine cost containment strategies that can be implemented in this area.
Methods: The study is a systematic literature review, employing the PRISMA flow diagram. The review was carried out in two stages using the Web of Science database, focusing on the cost structures of units and cost reduction strategies.
Results: The study synthesized finding from 14 papers to examine the topic. The results of the 10 studies on the cost structure indicated that the cost structures of intensive care units are mostly composed of labor, medical consumables, and equipment expenses. Among the cost control methods, quality improvement, lean management, and value streams were detected to be frequently used approaches.
Conclusion: Given that intensive care units are high-cost service areas, it will be beneficial to examine them considering cost management approaches.

Keywords

Intensive care units, Hospitals, Cost and cost analysis, Cost control

Project Number

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Yoğun Bakım Maliyetleri ve Efektif Maliyet Kontrol Yöntemleri: Bir Sistematik Literatür Çalışması

Abstract

Amaç: Yoğun bakımlar yüksek kaynak tüketimleri ile birlikte hastanelerin en karmaşık ve kritik hizmet üretim alanlarından biridir. Bu çalışmada yoğun bakımların, maliyet yapıları bakımından analiz edilmesi ve bu alanda yapılabilecek maliyet düşürme çalışmalarının irdelenmesi amaçlanmıştır.
Yöntem: Sistematik literatür taraması yöntemi ile yürütülen çalışmada PRISMA akış diyagramı kullanılmıştır. Tarama yoğun bakımların maliyet yapıları ve maliyet azaltma çalışmaları şeklinde iki aşamada Web of Science veri tabanında gerçekleştirilmiştir.
Bulgular: Çalışma kapsamında 14 makalenin bulguları bir araya getirilerek konu irdelenmiştir. Maliye yapısı üzerine odaklanan 10 adet çalışmanın bulguları yoğun bakımların maliyet yapılarının yoğun olarak işçilik, tıbbi malzeme ve ekipman giderlerinden oluştuğunu göstermiştir. Maliyet kontrol yöntemleri arasında ise kalite iyileştirme, yalın, değer akışları gibi yöntemlerin yer aldığı görülmüştür.
Sonuç: Yoğun bakımların yüksek maliyetli üretim alanları olması sebebiyle, maliyet yönetimi yaklaşımları ile incelenmesinin faydalı olacağı görülmektedir.

Keywords

Yoğun bakım üniteleri, Hastaneler, Giderler ve Maliyet Analizi, Maliyet Kontrolü

Ethical Statement

Çalışma, sistematik bir tarama çalışması olması sebebiyle etik kurul izni gerektirmemektedir.

Supporting Institution

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Project Number

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Thanks

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