Table 1.

Examples of potential effects on hospital costs of different changes to ICU organization and management

Organizational change	Possible clinical outcome	Fixed costs	Variable costs
Closing ICU beds	Unclear	Decreased	Decreased
Intensivist staffing	Decreased mortality	Increased	Unclear
Pharmacist staffing	Fewer adverse drug events, deceased LOS	Increased	Decreased
Lower nurse to patient ratio	Fewer adverse events, decreased LOS	Increased	Unclear
Checklist prompter	Decreased mortality, decreased LOS	Increased	Decreased