European Critical Care: Markets, Trends, and Opportunities in Patient Monitoring Products

Critical care is administered in many areas of the hospital; however, for the purposes of this report, critical care units (CCUs) are defined as burn units, emergency departments, intensive care units (ICUs), intensive neurological units, neonatal ICUs, intensive respiratory care units, post-anesthesia care units, pediatric ICUs, and areas in which critically ill, high-risk, or unstable medical and surgical patients are treated.

Numerous healthcare issues affect the critical care industry, including managed care, personnel shortages, and new approaches to product evaluation and purchasing. Critical care in the European countries covered by this report [France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom (U.K.)] has expanded rapidly as shortened hospital lengths-of-stay have increased the intensity of care and the acuity of patients in acute-care hospitals. Patients are moved out of CCUs and into general medical/surgical floors, step-down units, or home healthcare as quickly as possible.

Requirements for patient outcomes data and other key clinical quality information have changed the way hospitals make buying decisions. Clinical guidelines create greater standardization of care as physicians and other healthcare providers seek to reduce costs while improving quality of care. Competition between health plans is increasingly based not solely on price, but also on quality indicators.

Underscoring these changes is the rising cost of healthcare. Despite the increase in per-capita spending on healthcare, the percentage of healthcare expenditures to hospitals has been decreasing. In 1980, 43.6% of healthcare expenditures went to hospital care; in 1998, that percentage decreased to 34.4%.

The critical care industry must continue to create and market high-technology products, pharmaceuticals, and equipment that reduce labor costs and hospital lengths-of-stay, increase the speed of diagnosis and treatment, and improve patient outcomes