[Economic assessment of different administration modes for total parenteral nutrition]

Total parenteral nutrition can be administered with separate bottles or complete admixtures prepared by commercial firms, the hospital pharmacy, or hospital subcontractors. The aim of this study was to compare overall cost of total parenteral nutrition using different administration modes.

Overall production costs of hospital parenteral admixtures were calculated from five expenditures (raw materials, consumable items, annual depreciation, control costs, staff costs). Cost for the other administration modes were evaluated for an identical formula. Time spent by nurses and the cost of connecting material was estimated to determine the overall cost for one day of parenteral nutrition.

Total cost was 46.04 euros/day with separate bottles, 50.61 euros/day for hospital preparations, 65.41 and 72.87 euros/day for industrial preparations and 82.02 euros/day for formulations prepared by subcontractors.

Hospital preparations offer, for minimal outlay, an alternative for parenteral nutrition of much higher quality than the separate bottles method.