title: Direct health care costs and length of hospital stay related to health care-acquired infections in adult patients based on point prevalence measurements.
abstract: The incidence of health care-acquired infection (HAI) and the consequence for patients with HAI tend to vary from study to study. By including all patients, all medical specialties, and performing a follow-up analysis, this study contributes to previous findings in this research field.
  
  
  
  Data from the Swedish National Point Prevalence Surveys of HAI 2010-2012 was merged with cost per patient data from the county Health Care Register (N = 6,823). Extended length of stay (LOS) and costs related to an HAI were adjusted for sex, age, intensive care unit use, and surgery.
  
  
  
  Patients with HAI (n = 732) had a larger proportion of readmissions compared with patients with no HAI (29.0% vs 16.5%). Of the total bed days, 9.3% was considered to be excess days attributed to the group of patients with an HAI. The excess LOS comprised 11.4% of the total costs (95% CI, 10.2-12.7). The 1-year overall mortality rate for patients with HAI in comparison to all other patients was 1.75 (95% CI, 1.45-2.11), all 5 of these differences were statistically significant (P < .001).
  
  
  
  Even if not all outcomes for patients with an HAI can be explained by the HAI itself, the increase in inpatient days, readmissions, associated costs, and higher mortality rates are quite notable.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Division of Health Care Analysis, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden. Electronic address: mikael.rahmqvist@LiU.se.
authors.forename: Mikael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rahmqvist
authors.affiliation: Unit for Infection Control, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
authors.forename: Annika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Samuelsson
authors.affiliation: Unit for Development and Patient Safety, Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
authors.forename: Salumeh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bastami
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Division of Health Care Analysis, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rutberg
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Mortality rate; Point prevalence survey; Readmission