Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-02T14:43:24.146Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Economic Consequences of Hospital Infections in a 1,000-Bed University Hospital in Norway

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Bjørg Marit Andersen
Bjørg Marit Andersen*
Affiliation:
Clinic of Preventive Medicine, Department of Hospital Infections, Ullevål University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
*
Department of Hospital Infections, Clinic for Preventive Medicine, Ullevål Hospital, 0407, Oslo, Norway
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Hospital infections were studied among 41,000 patients admitted to a 1,000-bed university hospital in Oslo, Norway. A prevalence rate of 8.5% in 1995 contributed to 14,500 days of extra stay in the hospital. The direct economic consequences of hospital infections was 40 to 50 million Norwegian kroner ($6-$7 million). The extra direct cost per infected patient was 14,300 Norwegian kroner ($2,200). Hospital infections are generating high extra costs and morbidity in countries with good general health care and with few problems with resistant bacteria.

Type
The International Perspective
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 19 , Issue 10 , October 1998 , pp. 805 - 807
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Garner, JS, Jarvis, WR, Emori, TG, Horan, TC, Hughes, JM. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention definitions for nosocomial infections, 1998. Am J Infect Control 1988;16:128–140.Google Scholar
2. Andersen, BM, Sorlie, D, Hotvedt, R, Amdahl, SM, Olafsen, K, George, R, et al. Multiply p-lactam resistant Enterobacter cloacae infections linked to environmental flora in a unit for cardiothoracic and vascular surgery. Scand J Infect Dis 1989;21:181–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3. Refsahl, K, Andersen, BM. Clinically significant coagulase-negative staphylococci: identification and resistance patterns. J Hosp Infect 1992;22:19–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4. French, GL, Cheng, AFB. Measurement of the costs of hospital infection by prevalence surveys. J Hosp Infect 1991;18(suppl A):65–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5. Wenzel, RP, Pfaller, MA. Feasible and desirable future targets for reducing the costs of hospital infections. J Hosp Infect 1991;18(suppl A):94–98.Google Scholar
6. Coello, R, Glenister, H, Fereres, J, Bartlett, C, Leigh, D, Sedgwick, J, et al. The cost of infection in surgical patients: a case-control study. J Hosp Infect 1993;25:239–250.Google Scholar
7. Wenzel, RP. The economics of nosocomial infections. J Hosp Infect 1995;31:79–87.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
8. MacGowan, AP, Brown, I, Feeney, R, Lovering, A, McCullogh, SY, Reeves, DS, et al. Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea and length of hospital stay. J Hosp Infect 1995;31:241–245.Google Scholar
9. Lystad, A, Stormark, M. Rapport om prevalensundersøkelse av sykehus-infeksjoner i norske somatiske sykehus 25 April 1991. MSIS 1991; uke 29.Google Scholar
10. Cruse, PJE, Foord, R. A five-year prospective study of 23,649 surgical wounds. Arch Surg 1973;107:206–210.Google Scholar
11. Dinkel, RH, Lebok, U. A survey of nosocomial infections and their influence on hospital mortality rates. J Hosp Infect 1990;16:297–304 Google Scholar