Hospital admissions types and cost by admission type
The differences in average costs between study arms observed in Table 1
prompted further post hoc investigation of the admission episodes
and costs by admission type. The two arms were similar in the mean
percentage of mother/baby pairs that had any additional admissions for
either mother or baby after the initial delivery admission (CTG+STan:
40%; CTG: 43.5%). Almost two-thirds of pairs in both arms had no
additional admissions. The CTG+STan cohort had a nominally increased
rate of maternal readmission, however it was also associated with fewer
neonatal admissions, with particular relative reductions in neonates
requiring two or more admissions, and admissions requiring critical care
(Supplementary table 2). Critical care refers to Neonatal Intensive Care
(NICU) where a multidisciplinary team cares for babies who need 1:1
continuous observation and monitoring and will often require respiratory
support including oxygen therapy, CPAP, intubation, central line
management and critical pharmacological support
Table 2 shows total and average hospital admission and readmission costs
by the type of admission. Costs associated with delivery were similar
across arms with a marginally (approximately 1%) higher cost in the
CTG+STan arm and costs per maternal readmission were also higher in the
CTG+STan arm (AUD5,188 vs AUD3,194), however given the overall low rate
of readmissions the average difference (AUD142 vs AUD67) over the cohort
as a whole was small (Table 2).