Cost-effectiveness analysis of a diagnostic medical technology to improve blood culture sample quality and detection of sepsis in Sweden
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Background: Blood culture contamination (BCC) in sepsis diagnostic procedures is a challenging issue for hospitals, laboratories, and patients. Researchers have found different technologies to minimise the occurrence of BCC and conducted cost-effectiveness analyses of them; however, little is known about the impacts of these technologies on the laboratories in the hospital. Aim: To investigate the cost-effectiveness of a technology that minimises BCC from a laboratory perspective. Methods: Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) from a laboratory perspective was chosen as the main method to examine the technology. The analysis was conducted using SilverDecisions and Excel. Since there were no existing data, costs (in SEK) and the effectiveness of the tool (mortality rate among the patients) were collected from a workshop with laboratory staff, expert survey, and literature, which were then fed into the analytical software. Finally, to identify the variables influencing CEA the most, a deterministic sensitivity analysis (DSA) was run. Overall, the present study comprises data from a Swedish hospital, current diagnostic procedures, and projections of the prospective advantages of the new technology. Results: When setting the cost of the tool at 100 SEK, we can yield a reduction of 0,022% in mortality rate and 0,36% in contaminated samples per patient with 20,30 SEK in cost per bottle. With this information, we obtained the Incremental Cost-effectiveness Ratio with SEK 3 640,97 and SEK 225,59 Conclusion: The results indicate that the technology has potentially high cost?effectiveness, enabling Swedish hospitals to achieve financial savings. The outcomes not only set steps for evaluating similar products in the future but also lay a solid foundation for research on sepsis, especially from a laboratory perspective. Finally, this study underlines the potential of implementing this technology as a cost-effective investment in improving sepsis care in Sweden.
