Exploring the real costs of healthcare-associated infections: an international review

Abstract

Purpose: Healthcare-associated infections acquired a high degree of dissemination, being considered a serious public health problem and assumed as one of the most common adverse events associated with healthcare. They have a significant impact on health systems by increasing hospital expenses, and compromising the healthcare quality and effectiveness. Surgical site infections (SSI) are considered one of the most serious complications that can occur after an orthopaedic surgery. The aim of this study is to contribute to the development of a framework to analyse the costs of infections related to hip and knee arthroplasties. Methods: A literature review was conducted on databases, and articles published between January 2005 and April 2016 were searched. Findings: A total of 14 articles met the inclusion criteria. Costs were grouped in hospitalization and treatment dimensions. For hospitalization, the indicators were the length of stay (LOS) and/ or monetary costs; For treatment, the indicators were number of surgeries and LOS, or monetary costs. We observed that LOS is the most commonly used to estimate SSI direct costs. Patients who developed hip or knee arthroplasty infections remained in hospital 2.5-3 times longer and incurred hospital costs almost three times higher, when compared with an uninfected patient. KEYWORDSHip and knee arthroplasties; healthcare-associated infections (HAI); surgical site infections (SSI); length of stay; costs

Exploring direct costs of primary hip and knee arthroplasties healthcare-associated infections: A retrospective study

“…It is also important to highlight the burden of the length of stay on the cost of the infected patients. Some studies reported the length of stay as the factor with the highest cost for an infected patient [11,[16][17][18] and in this study, this is also verified. We found that, on average, 61.74% of the costs of the infected patients were due to the costs of re-hospitalization stay.…”

“…As a result, hip and knee arthroplasties are currently the most common surgical procedures and, when successful, significantly improving patient's quality of life. However, the large volume of arthroplasties performed have to be considered, as well as the increasing risk of prosthetic joint infection (between 1.5% and 2.5% of all knee and hip arthroplasties, tend to become infected) [6][7][8][9][10][11]. This is considered to be one of the most serious complications that can occur after an arthroplasty.…”

Papel dos trabalhadores de enfermagem no centro de material e esterilização: revisão integrativa

“…3 The CSSD is essential to control HAIs. 4 Considering that the CSSD is important for HAI health care safety and control, it is important for a better understanding of the role of nursing team members. Our goal is to analyze the role of nursing team members in the CSSD.…”

Total cost of surgical site infection in the two years following primary knee replacement surgery

“…A systematic review of arthroplasty patients showed that follow-up costs for infected arthroplasty cases were 3 times higher. 24 Another showed that SSI cases cost 4.1 times more than noninfected cases and averaged 3.6 readmissions compared to 0.1. 25 Gow et al 13 concluded that infected arthroplasty cases cost twice that of noninfected cases, whereas Peel et al 11 included inpatient and outpatient costs and found costs to be 1.6 times higher.…”