cost of ICU per day

MunoRN, RN · Jun 13, 2014

There's not really a set price, it can actually vary widely depending on the billing agreements between the facility and various payers. My ICU is about $6,000 per day as the basic charge. On top of that the patient will get billed for the intensivist's services and any other consulting physicians, any tests or procedures will also be billed separately.

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Jun 13, 2014

Depends on the ICU In would say a minimum of $6-7,000.00 is pretty average.

ChipNurse · Jun 13, 2014

When surgeons want to just keep their patients in the ICU "just because the care in better," I get so mad! It cost significantly MORE for the pt to be in an ICU bed than a step down or floor bed. I have no problem taking care of the sick ICU pts that actually need to be in ICU, but when docs do this it is wasting money and wasting a bed. Sorry, just a rant :sorry: Totally unrelated to the post, but $6000 bucks a day is A LOT!

calivianya, BSN, RN · Jun 16, 2014

It's way too dang expensive, especially with all the floor patients I babysit.

Last week I had a patient that I did nothing for all night long. DKA, but off the insulin drip for hours, MD just wanted us to sit on her and watch her - her blood sugars were AC+HS and she had an insulin pump and her own meter so she did her own checks and coverage. She didn't have a foley, she walked to the bathroom, she was normal sinus, her blood pressures were good, no oxygen, electrolytes were fine, telemetry orders had been DC'ed before I got there (but I still left her on the monitor anyway)... it's ridiculous. I hate MDs that sit on patients and keep them in ICU just for fun. She wasn't even a candidate to be on a med/surg floor IMO, let alone an ICU patient.

applesxoranges, BSN, RN · Jun 17, 2014

I think they have to post the rates online. It varies from hospital to hospital. I worked for a hospital system and I looked up the cost of all the hospitals for different rooms and the cost varies from hospital to hospital within the same system.

Cuddleswithpuddles · Jun 17, 2014

For the people who say they "babysit" patients who really should be on the floor, do your house supervisors get to overrule ICU orders and/or force transfers out of ICU? My hospital is very much about unit-specific criteria, and the RN house supervisor has a lot of pull regarding who gets to stay in ICU, especially if we need to make room for a truly critical patient.

AGACNPTX · Jun 17, 2014

We get a lot of low acuity patients in our ICU because some doctors do not trust floor nurses to care for their patients. It is becoming a big problem. Some surgeons automatically send all their patients to us post op no matter how minor the surgery is. Our unit is almost always full with patients in overflow and more holding in the ER. Then when the same doctors have a vent patient holding in PACU or ER, they are appalled we don't have a bed and suddenly want their stable patients rushed to the floor and a stat clean on the room so we have a bed for the vent. Sadly, charge nurses can ask for the patients to be moved to the floor but no one, including nurse managers or house supervisors, can force MD's to move them out. You can imagine how frustrating it is when we are assigned two critical patients plus a third patient who is ambulatory, on room air, and saline locked who hits the call light all day long :). Supervisors will only staff us for the patients who are actually in the unit beds, they do not count patients in overflow beds or holding in ER that we are responsible for as well.

AGACNPTX · Jun 17, 2014

Oh and some doctors were actually putting in transfer orders for their patients to be moved to the floor, but telling us verbally we had to keep them in ICU anyway. They were doing this so they wouldn't be charged for ICU care. This went on for a while with many complaints before administration finally told them they couldn't do it anymore

Cuddleswithpuddles · Jun 18, 2014

We get a lot of low acuity patients in our ICU because some doctors do not trust floor nurses to care for their patients. It is becoming a big problem. Some surgeons automatically send all their patients to us post op no matter how minor the surgery is. Our unit is almost always full with patients in overflow and more holding in the ER. Then when the same doctors have a vent patient holding in PACU or ER, they are appalled we don't have a bed and suddenly want their stable patients rushed to the floor and a stat clean on the room so we have a bed for the vent. Sadly, charge nurses can ask for the patients to be moved to the floor but no one, including nurse managers or house supervisors, can force MD's to move them out. You can imagine how frustrating it is when we are assigned two critical patients plus a third patient who is ambulatory, on room air, and saline locked who hits the call light all day long :). Supervisors will only staff us for the patients who are actually in the unit beds, they do not count patients in overflow beds or holding in ER that we are responsible for as well.

I think our hospital's strong enforcement of unit criteria also stems from our state-mandated nurse-patient ratios. ICU nurses cannot take on more than 2 patients in ICU, even if they do have transfer orders and are just waiting for a tele or med-surg bed.

adnrnstudent, ASN, RN · Jun 20, 2014

The "charge" and the Negotiated Fee for Service with the insurance company are 2 very different rates. Friend of mine spent 10 days in ICU. The charge was 26k, what they got was 10k. That was 12 years ago so sure it has changed but hospital still probably only gets about 1/3 of so called "charge."

calivianya, BSN, RN · Jun 21, 2014

We get a lot of low acuity patients in our ICU because some doctors do not trust floor nurses to care for their patients. It is becoming a big problem. Some surgeons automatically send all their patients to us post op no matter how minor the surgery is. Our unit is almost always full with patients in overflow and more holding in the ER. Then when the same doctors have a vent patient holding in PACU or ER, they are appalled we don't have a bed and suddenly want their stable patients rushed to the floor and a stat clean on the room so we have a bed for the vent. Sadly, charge nurses can ask for the patients to be moved to the floor but no one, including nurse managers or house supervisors, can force MD's to move them out. You can imagine how frustrating it is when we are assigned two critical patients plus a third patient who is ambulatory, on room air, and saline locked who hits the call light all day long :). Supervisors will only staff us for the patients who are actually in the unit beds, they do not count patients in overflow beds or holding in ER that we are responsible for as well.

It sounds like we work in very similar places, except that we don't take 3rd patients except in situations with inadequate staffing. I've taken three patients twice in the last year. Even if both of my patients are floor patients I am babysitting, we are 1:2 at my job.