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High Cost Nosocomial Infections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Robert W. Pinner ,
Robert W. Haley ,
Brent A. Blumenstein ,
Dennis R. Schaberg ,
Stephen D. Von Allmen  and
John E. McGowan Jr
Robert W. Pinner
Affiliation:
Departments of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and Biometry, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgiaand the, Hospital Infection Branch, Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia
Robert W. Haley
Affiliation:
Departments of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and Biometry, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgiaand the, Hospital Infection Branch, Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia
Brent A. Blumenstein
Affiliation:
Departments of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and Biometry, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgiaand the, Hospital Infection Branch, Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia
Dennis R. Schaberg
Affiliation:
Departments of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and Biometry, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgiaand the, Hospital Infection Branch, Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia
Stephen D. Von Allmen
Affiliation:
Departments of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and Biometry, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgiaand the, Hospital Infection Branch, Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia
John E. McGowan Jr*
Affiliation:
Departments of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and Biometry, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgiaand the, Hospital Infection Branch, Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia
*
Epidemiology Department (Box I), Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta, Georgia30303
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Abstract

The average charge per patient due to nosocomial infection for 215 nosocomial infections in 183 study patients was $693. These costs, however, were concentrated in very few patients; 5% of patients accounted for nearly one-third of total charges. The 10% of patients with highest nosocomial infection costs were patients on Medical or Surgical services; these services were utilized in 71% of patients with nosocomial infection and accounted for 86% of the attributable charges. Among the 22 most costly infections, 17 occurred in surgical wounds and lower respiratory tract. Although these sites accounted for 46% of the infections, they resulted in 77% of the total nosocomial infection charges. Patients with a primary diagnosis of injury had particularly costly infections. Combined analysis of these variables revealed two groups for whom nosocomial infections were especially costly: surgical patients who acquired wound infections after injuries, and medical patients with lower respiratory infections.

Type
Original-Articles
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , March/April 1982 , pp. 143 - 149
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1982

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Footnotes

*

Division of Infectious Diseases of the Department of Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

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