Page 87 - DECISION-MAKING IN SEVERE TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY PATIENT OUTCOME, HOSPITAL COSTS, AND RESEARCH PRACTICE

Review on in-hospital costs after severe traumatic brain injury
adding to the total burden on society, like indirect costs and loss of productivity, should be included to accurately map expenditures. Also, health and financial implications for family and proxies deserve investigation. Last, the use of accurate cost calculation methods using exact healthcare consumption and cost price data could further improve the accuracy of cost calculations and thus outcome results. 88,89
CONCLUSIONS 3
We conclude that healthcare consumption and in-hospital costs for patients with s-TBI are generally high. In-hospital costs mostly consist of costs related to LOS and surgical interventions. The major variation of study results is primarily caused by methodological and clinical heterogeneity. Study quality was variable but often inadequate and especially items considered important in calculation and reporting of in-hospital costs scored poorly. High quality future economic evaluations could guide physicians and policy-maker in improving clinical decision-making and resource allocation. Studies should therefore focus on the long-term cost-effectiveness of treatments and improve both study quality and equality by using guidelines and common data elements.
Supporting information available online.
S1 Appendix. Literature search strategy: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216743.s001 (DOCX)
S2 Appendix. Quality assessment information: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0216743.s002 (DOCX)
S1 Table. PRISMA 2009 checklist: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216743.s003 (DOC)
S2 Table. Results of the quality assessment: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216743.s004 (DOCX)
85