Economic Evaluation of Neonatal Intensive Care:Which Variables Have to Be Known?

Abstract

An economic evaluation of a health care program seeks to investigate the relative costs and consequences of alternative strategies in health care by examining the values of the resources used and weighing them against the values of the outcomes. Because resources are finite, there are choices to be made about how best to use them. Thus, the concept of the value of resources that is applied in an economic evaluation is that of opportunity cost: since resources are finite, deploying them in one way means that a benefit is foregone in not having them available to pursue the best alternative. An economic evaluation of a health care program fundamentally is an exercise about choices, not simply about money.