Cost measurement and valuation of resource use
The primary outcome of EmCS occurred in 107/482 (22.2%) of the CTG+STan
arm and in 107/485 (22.1%) in the CTG alone arm, adjusted relative risk
(RR) 1.02; 95% confidence interval (0.81 to 1.27), P=0.89 (1). In
addition to observing the primary outcome, data from various clinical
feeder systems were used to identify the level of care provided and the
subsequent resource inputs for each patient. All inpatient costs were
calculated on a full absorption basis (i.e. inclusion of direct and
indirect costs) for each type of resource used. The preparation of
costing data conformed to standards required for the National Hospital
Cost Data Collection for the year of collection. This was done with the
exception of two cases where known neonatal admission cost data were
missing. After investigation, this missingness was assumed to be at
random and costs were imputed based in average neonatal admission costs
for that arm. All costs are expressed in Australian dollars (AUD) for
the financial year (FY) 2021. Costs from the FY2018 are inflated
8.3503%; FY2019, 6.1453%; and FY2020, 3.6229%, based on the inflation
of the National Efficient Price (NEP) for health care services provided
by public hospitals, as determined by the The Independent Hospital
Pricing Authority (IHPA) (12).
The analysis used a health service perspective and included episode
costs for all maternal and neonatal admissions and readmissions that
occurred within a six week window from randomization.