Study: Hospital costs drop when infants treated better

Working with faculty at the University of Utah, Intermountain Hospitals found that using an updated care model for treating feverish infants saved four hospitals $1.9 million in 2009. The care model included obtaining a complete blood count and urinalysis for every infant and included treatment and discharge guidelines related to those tests. Overall, hospital stays went down in length—from 60 to 44 hours on average—and hospital costs dropped by "more than $1,000 per infant admission" after the model was implemented, according to the study.