title: The economic burden of patient safety targets in acute care: a systematic review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Our objective was to determine the quality of literature in costing of the economic burden of patient safety.
  
  
  METHODS
  We selected 15 types of patient safety targets for our systematic review. We searched the literature published between 2000 and 2010 using the following terms: "costs and cost analysis," "cost-effectiveness," "cost," and "financial management, hospital." We appraised the methodologic quality of potentially relevant studies using standard economic methods. We recorded results in the original currency, adjusted for inflation, and then converted to 2010 US dollars for comparative purposes (2010 US$1.00 = 2010 €0.76). The quality of each costing study per patient safety target was also evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We screened 1948 abstracts, and identified 158 potentially eligible studies, of which only 61 (39%) reported any costing methodology. In these 61 studies, we found wide estimates of the attributable costs of patient safety events ranging from $2830 to $10,074. In general hospital populations, the cost per case of hospital-acquired infection ranged from $2132 to $15,018. Nosocomial bloodstream infection was associated with costs ranging from $2604 to $22,414.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There are wide variations in the estimates of economic burden due to differences in study methods and methodologic quality. Greater attention to methodologic standards for economic evaluations in patient safety is needed.
authors.affiliation: Health Outcomes and Pharmaco Economics (HOPE) Research Centre, Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Toronto, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mittmann
authors.forename: Marika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koo
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Daneman
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Matlow
authors.forename: Murray
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krahn
authors.forename: Kaveh G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Shojania
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Etchells
keywords: burden of illness; patient safety; quality; review