PEDIATRICS Vol. 75 No. 4 April 1985, pp. 798-799
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Neonatal Intensive Care: Cost-Benefit Analysis

DONALD N. MANGRAVITE MD, MPH1

1 Golden Gate Regional Center, 100 Mission St, Suite 400, San Francisco, CA 94105

To the Editor.—

I would like to commend Walker and colleagues1 for their comprehensive examination of the costs and benefits of neonatal intensive care for infants weighing less than 1,000 grams. However, examining only one group of infants served by a tertiary neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) can be misleading.

By definition, a tertiary level NICU is designed to provide a broad range of services to infants with a wide variety of illnesses. As is true for any system expected to provide a broad range of services, some services will result in a more favorable cost-benefit ratio than others.