Cost of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation in four diseases

The cost of bone-marrow transplantation is compared in 4 diseases: acute myelogenous leukaemia, severe combined immunodeficiency, severe aplastic anaemia and chronic granulocytic leukaemia. Hospital cost components directly related to the clinical protocols applied are valorized. Results confirm the well-known fact that bone-marrow transplantation is a costly technique. The unit cost of a transplantation can vary from 1 to 2 between departments for the sole reason that patients treated are not suffering from the same illness. For one disease, the unit cost may vary from 1 to 2.7 when post-graft complications arise. Furthermore, in the health-care sector, as well as in every other economic sector, costs do not remain stable: they vary in time most especially when treatment protocols evolve. This type of cost information is the basis for management control systems without which physicians, hospital managers and health-care authorities cannot communicate effectively. In countries where health care is largely financed by the community, what is at stake is the future of advanced technologies in medicine.