Design, setting, participants, & measurements: A Markov model was designed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of reporting eGFR compared with reporting sCr alone in a hypothetical cohort of 60-yr-old individuals undergoing annual blood chemistry testing over 18 yr. Paths and path probabilities were identical between the two arms, except for the sensitivity and specificity of eGFR and sCr to detect CKD.

Results: eGFR reporting was dominant with a cost/effectiveness ratio of $16,751/quality-adjusted life year (QALY) versus $16,779/QALY for sCr reporting. Monte Carlo microsimulations in a hypothetical cohort of 10,000 patients demonstrated that over 18 yr, an average of 13 fewer deaths, 29 fewer ESRD events, and 11,348 more false positive CKD (FP-CKD) cases occurred with eGFR reporting. A sensitivity analysis revealed that decreasing the FP-CKD quality of life by > 2% rendered sCr reporting more cost-effective than eGFR reporting. If FP-CKD reduced quality of life by 5%, the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio for sCr reporting versus eGFR reporting would be $4367/QALY.

Conclusion: A decision analysis suggests that reporting eGFR may be beneficial, but this limited benefit was reversed with virtually any reduction in quality of life caused by incorrect diagnosis of CKD.

Design, setting, participants, & measurements: Laboratory, clinical, and hospital billing data from a randomized trial of 3359 hemodialysis-dependent patients hospitalized with S. aureus infection in the United States whose vascular access type was fistula or graft and who were hospitalized with S. aureus infection to evaluate inpatient costs, hospital days, and mortality over 12 wk were used. Generalized linear regression was used to identify independent predictors of 12-wk costs, inpatient days, and mortality.

Results: Of the 279 patients (8.3%) who developed S. aureus infection during approximately 1 yr of follow-up, 25.4% were treated as outpatients. Among patients for whom billing data were available, 89 patients hospitalized with S. aureus bacteremia incurred mean 12-wk inpatient costs of $19,454 and 11.9 inpatient days. Among the 70 patients hospitalized with non-bloodstream S. aureus infections, mean inpatient costs were $19,222 and the mean number of inpatient days was 11.3. Twelve-week mortality was 20.2 and 15.7% for patients with S. aureus bloodstream and non-bloodstream infections, respectively. Older age was independently associated with higher risk of death among patients with S. aureus bacteremia and with higher inpatient costs and more hospital days among patients with non-bloodstream infections.

Conclusions: Hemodialysis-dependent patients with fistula or graft access incur high costs and long inpatient stays when hospitalized for S. aureus infection.