Resource consumption in psychiatric intensive care: the cost of aggression

The costs of operating a psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) were recorded for a six-month period. There were 110 admissions and 99 discharges. Mean length of stay was 12.3 days. Total costs were $346,516 over the study period, $283.56 per patient-day. Fixed costs comprised 93% of the total, including nursing staff ($169,447), overheads ($77,017), medical staff ($48,819), hotel costs ($24,160) and miscellaneous ($1,750). Variable costs included special nursing, ($19,405), treatment of major self-harm ($3,024), drugs ($1,707) and staff time to manage aggressive incidents ($1,188). Reduction of the incidence of aggression could result in valuable cost savings.