Application of a diagnostic decision rule in children with meningeal signs: a cost-minimization study.

Abstract

Recently, we developed a diagnostic rule for the diagnosis and treatment of children with meningeal signs. This rule may provide the physician with a rationale to decide on the use of diagnostic and treatment procedures in these children and to improve their care. In this study, we estimated cost savings of the rule compared with current practice. Routine care data of 360 children visiting the emergency department of the Sophia Children's Hospital with meningeal signs between 1988 and 1998 were used. Costs of diagnostic tests and treatment were estimated by using financial accounts of an academic and a general pediatric hospital. The number of procedures actually performed and the resulting cost estimates (i.e. unit costs x volume) were compared with the estimated figures after application of the decision rule. The population of children with meningeal signs comprised 99 with bacterial meningitis (27%), 36 with another serious bacterial infection (10%), and 225 with a self-limiting disease (63%). Application of the rule would reduce lumbar punctures by 12% and hospitalizations for empirical treatment by 15% with the same diagnostic accuracy as current practice. Cost savings were estimated at Euro292 per patient (relative reduction 10%) and were mainly achieved in the treatment course (Euro259). A diagnostic decision rule for children with meningeal signs has the potential to improve the appropriate use of medical resources, to be cost-effective, and to ascertain the absence of bacterial meningitis earlier.