title: [Intrahospital infections and quality of medical care. Is it possible to save in health?].
abstract: The results of several surveys about intrahospitalary infections performed with the same methodology were used to calculate the dimensions of these infections in Mexico. Based on these results, the mortality rate associated with intrahospitalary infections, estimating a five per cent crude mortality, would be 32.1 in one hundred thousand inhabitants, ranking them in the third place of the most frequent causes of death in Mexico. The economic consequences of this complications are enormous (around 300 million dollars), this cost is probably not covered by the health system; nonetheless, at the end, the country has to pay it. This situation is a consequence, at least in part, of the low budget that the government assigns to the health system, which results in problems a lot costlier than the amount that is pretended to save when budgets are shortened. Money cannot be saved in health care unless an adequate hospital functioning is ensured.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Infectología, Instituto Nacional de la Nutrición Salvador Zubirán.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ponce De León Rosales
mesh_terms: D003428:Cross Infection / Q000191:economics* / Q000401:mortality; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D008800:Mexico / Q000453:epidemiology; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000191:economics*
vernacular_title: Infecciones intrahospitalarias y calidad de la atención médica. Es posible ahorrar en salud?