2005 OPEN FORUM Abstracts
COMPARISON OF THE OVERALL COSTS OF OPERATION OF FIVE BRANDS OF ICU MECHANICAL VENTILATORS
Edward C. Burns, RRT; Joseph Kratohvil, RRT; Vincent Riggi, RRT; Rosendo Moreno; Robert M. Kacmarek, PhD, RRT. Massachusetts General Hospital, Respiratory Care Department, Boston, MA
INTRODUCTION: Most current generation ICU ventilators have a list price of about $20,000 to $40,000. However, this price does not include routine operating costs for both routine maintenance and unscheduled repairs. We were curious if the ongoing cost of routine preventative maintenance (PM) and unscheduled repairs differed among ventilators in use in our ICU.
METHODS: The overall cost for routine preventative maintenance, labor and unscheduled repair replacement parts on a per hour basis was determined for 63 Puritan-Bennett 840s, 40 Drager Evita4s, 12 Drager Babylog 8000, 17 Respironics BiPAP-Visions, and 7 Viasys Bird VIPs currently being used in our ICUs. Data on hours of use, specific replacement parts and required preventative maintenance checks for each one of the ventilators were obtained from our department equipment repair/maintenance database and covered the period from date of purchase through May 31, 2005. Maximum machine hours of use were determined by the most recent recorded entry in the repair shop database. List price was used for replacement parts and any PM kits. The labor costs were consistently applied across all ventilators based on the approximate time required for each repair or PM at the hourly rate of $50.00. All warranty work and replacement parts were included. Each PM or repair entry in the database was categorized as follows: "PM", "PM with Repair", "Repair", "O2 Cell Replacement", "O2 Cell Replacement with Other Repair", "Could Not Duplicate", "User Error". The categories for Repair, PM with Repair, O2 Cell with Other Repair were all categorized as "Repairs". Scheduled machine overhauls were counted as PM checks.
RESULTS:
| Manufacturer Model | Avg. Age in Years | Avg. Hrs of Use | Avg. Hrs of Use per Month | Avg. Repairs per Yr | Avg. PM per Yr | Total Labor Costs | Avg. Labor Costs per Hr of Use | Total Parts Costs | Avg. Equip Costs per Hr of Use | Total Cost per Hr of Use | Total Cost |
| Puritan-Bennett 840 | 3.66 | 14397 | 328 | 0.9 | 2.1 | $61,350 | $0.07 | $196,775 | $0.22 | $0.29 | $258,125 |
| Drager Babylog 8000 | 5.14 | 22610 | 368 | 1.2 | 1.6 | $21,338 | $0.08 | $37,310 | $0.15 | $0.23 | $58,647 |
| Respironics Vision | 2.88 | 3694 | 107 | 0.5 | 2.6 | $9,738 | $0.17 | $7,983 | $0.13 | $0.29 | $17,721 |
| Drage Evita 4 | 3.66 | 17895 | 405 | 1.0 | 2.1 | $54,850 | $0.08 | $88,419 | $0.13 | $0.20 | $143,269 |
| Viasys Bird VIP | 10.98 | 70981 | 538 | 0.6 | 2.6 | $29,462 | $0.11 | $58,799 | $0.22 | $0.33 | $88,262 |
CONCLUSION: The overall cost per hour of use across ventilators was about $0.27. This translates into a cost of about $1000 per year per ventilator, except the Respironics Vision in which the yearly cost was about $400.