OBJECTIVES: To estimate the economic impact of introducing an electrolyte-balanced heparinized (EBH) arterial blood gas syringe with or without an automatic blood gas analyzer in intensive care units (ICU) from a hospital’s perspective and a patient's perspective in China.

METHODS: For hypothetical 26,639 ICU patients in a hospital per year, a budget impact model was developed to assess the difference in total healthcare costs per year and per patient per stay costs by introducing an EBH arterial blood gas syringe with or without an automatic blood gas analyzer. The model evaluated syringe costs, maintenance costs, labor costs, costs associated with occupational exposure to contaminated blood and body fluids, and hospitalization costs. Costs were estimated in 2024 Chinese yuan. Model inputs, including the number of patients requiring blood gas tests, the number of tests per patient, the hands-on time of each test, maintenance frequency and time, retest rate, and length of stay were obtained from published sources or expert opinions.

RESULTS: In the base case, the inclusion of the EBH blood gas syringe with vs. without an automatic blood gas analyzer decreased the healthcare budget by ￥1 million from a hospital’s perspective and ￥214 per patient per stay from a patient’s perspective. The budget decrease was mainly due to shorter hands-on time of tests, fewer occupational exposure to contaminated blood and body fluids, and fewer machine maintenance efforts. Results were the most sensitive to the hands-on time of each test.

CONCLUSIONS: The inclusion of an EBH blood gas syringe with an automatic blood gas analyzer in ICU offers an efficacious approach with a decrease in the healthcare budget from both a hospital’s perspective and a patient’s perspective in China.