OBJECTIVES: To develop an economic evaluation to compare individually and vial-packaged strips for glucose monitoring METHODS: A simple decision tree model was developed using Excel to compare the costs of using individual vs. vial-packaged strips in a hospital setting. The decision tree described costs and consequences associated with two main parameters: risk of nosocomial infection due to the contamination of strips and risk of hypoglycemia/hyperglycemia due to an error in the determination of glycemia induced by the storage conditions of the strips. For each alternative (IP and VP), a simulated cohort of 1000 patients went through the tree accounting for costs and effects, and the results  were expressed as hypoglycemic events, nosocomial infection events, use/waste of strips and ICER. Sources of parameters is wide and uncertainty is high. Due to the lack of information about certain parameters, a group of assumptions were made .The risk of measurement error using contaminated strips was modelled to account for hypoglycaemic events. Uncertainty was tested using one-way sensitivity analysis (OWSA) and probabilistic sensitivity analysis (PSA). Cost-effectiveness acceptability curve with a threshold of 25.000€/QALY was drawn. Probabilistic results were depicted using a CE plane. RESULTS: Individual packaged strips save money (1,162 € per patient) and get  more QALYs (0.023 per patient), which confers a dominant position to individual packaged strips with 11% less nosocomial events, 10 times less hypoglycemic events (53 vs 655) and 6% reduction in the use of strips. PSA shows results in the same direction with a 64% probability of being cost-effective under a threshold of 25,000 € (from 82% at 0 € and keeping the difference over 25,000 €). CONCLUSIONS: Under the assumption of wrong measurements due to bad storage conditions, the use of individual packaged strips is a dominant option over vial-packaged strips, reducing costs by a 25%.