Hospital costs and mortality attributed to nosocomial bacteremias
R. F. Spengler and W. B. Greenough 3rd
Hospital patients with nosocomial bacteremia and matched hospital control
patients without this infection were used to determine the excess hospital
costs and mortality attributed to nosocomial bacteremias. Mortality was 14
times greater in patients with nosocomial bacteremia than in matched
members of the control group with the same primary diagnoses. An itemized
cost analysis, based on 81 case-control pairs, showed an average excess of
approximately $3,600 in direct hospital costs for patients who had
nosocomial bacteremias. It is estimated that only 24% of the total excess
costs to these hospital patients are preventable. Patients with nosocomial
bacteremia had an average hospitalization period that was 14 days longer
than the average hospital stay for members of the control group.
