Pezzotta, G. Masiero, G. Malagnino, A. Bozzo, S. Carrara, G. Brescacin, A. Zago, M. 2024 Background: There still is reluctance among surgeons when it comes to using bedside US in their daily clinical practice, except for very specific fields. Generally, the decision-making process relies on imaging techniques (e.g. CT, MRI). This may lead to a latency of execution, and consequently to a delay in decision making. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assess the economic impact of systematic and routine use of surgeon-performed point-of-care US (SP-POCUS) in the everyday activities of a surgical department, both for urgent and elective cases. Methods: We conducted a cost-benefit analysis comparing the incremental costs and savings of diagnostic strategies based on alternative procedures to bedside US. The dataset refers to 478 SP-POCUS performed at the General Surgery Department of Policlinico San Pietro (Bergamo, Italy) between January 2018 and February 2020. The alternatives to SP-POCUS were computed tomography (CT), X-ray (RX), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and US performed by the Radiologist. Per-exam costs, including personnel time expenditure, were calculated. Results: The economic evaluation revealed that the use of SP-POCUS allowed the hospital to generate €355 net savings per patient, mainly from avoided hospitalizations, fewer hospital days and hours of operating room. Extrapolating these results to a wider scenario, in a similar setting they could have represented a potential annual savings of more than €1.1 million for the Regional healthcare system in Lombardy, and more than €5.7 millions for the whole NHS in Italy. Conclusions: We provided evidence that SP-POCUS may generate important costs savings for health care providers, as it represents the most cost-effective initial diagnostic procedure compared to standard alternatives. The wide applicability of SP-POCUS could be obtained at rather negligible costs for investment in staff training. application/pdf https://susi.usi.ch/global/documents/334521 https://n2t.net/ark:/12658/srd1334521 https://susi.usi.ch/documents/334521/files/03_MESAOA_129_24 Pezzottaetal.pdf eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.3280/mesa2024-129oa18722 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/ark/12658/srd1334521 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess CC BY-NC-ND Mecosan. - 2024, vol. 129, no. Febbraio SP-POCUS Bedside US Routinely use Surgeon Cost-benefit analysis Costs Benefits Hospital stay Hospitalization Surgery info:eu-repo/classification/udc/33 Cost and benefit analysis of Surgenon-performed Point-of-Care Ultrasound (SP-POCUS) supporting decision making in a General Surgery Department http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501