Economic rationale for infection control in Australian hospitals
Nicholas Graves A E , Kate Halton C , David Paterson D and Michael Whitby BA Institute for Health & Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, 60 Musk Avenue, Qld 4059, Australia.
B Infection Management Services Southern Queensland, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Qld 4102, Australia.
C The Centre for Healthcare Related Infection Surveillance and Prevention, Brisbane, Qld 4001, Australia.
D University of Queensland, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Herston, Qld 4029, Australia.
E Corresponding author. Email: n.graves@qut.edu.au
Healthcare Infection 14(3) 81-88 https://doi.org/10.1071/HI09010
Published: 26 August 2009
Abstract
The objective of the present study was to predict the economic consequences of healthcare-acquired infections arising among admissions to Australian acute care hospitals. A quantitative algorithm informed by epidemiological and economic data was developed. All acute care hospitals in Australia were included in the study and the participants included all admissions to general medical and general surgical specialties. The main outcome measures were the numbers of cases of healthcare-acquired infection and bed days lost annually. It was estimated that there are 175 153 (95% credible interval 155 911 : 195 168) cases of healthcare-acquired infection among admissions to Australian hospitals annually, and the extra stay in hospital to treat symptoms accounts for 854 289 bed days (95% credible interval 645 091 : 1 096 244). If rates were reduced by 1%, then 150 158 bed days would be released for alternative uses. This would allow ~38 500 new admissions. Healthcare-acquired infections in patients cause bed blocks in Australian hospitals. The cost-effectiveness of hospital services might be improved by allocating more resources to infection control, releasing beds and allowing new admissions. There exists an opportunity to improve the efficiency of the Australian health care system.
Acknowledgements
The Centre for Healthcare Related Infection Surveillance and Prevention, Queensland Health provided funding for the completion of this work.
[1]
[2] Mokdad AH, Marks JS, Stroup DF, Gerberding JL. Actual causes of death in the United States. JAMA 2004; 291 1238–45.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed | equal to the expressions of the mean and variance for the Gamma distribution with the re-arranged expressions solved as follows:
Appendix 2. Clinical specialties included in the primary epidemiological study
Breast endocrine and thoracic, Cardiac surgical unit, Cardiology, Colorectal, Diabetes/endocrine, Ear nose and throat, Gastroenterology, General medicine, Geriatric, Gynaecology, Hepato-pancreato-biliary, Infectious diseases, Intensive care unit, Medical stroke unit, Neurology, Orthopedic, Respiratory, Rheumatology, General surgical unit, Upper gastrointestine and soft tissue, Urology, Vascular, Women’s and children’s health.