A study published in the Journal of Hospital Infection examined the cost-effectiveness of multi-modal hospital interventions to improve hand hygiene compliance.
Researchers developed a model to determine whether reductions in meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections alone would make hand hygiene interventions cost-effective. They combined transmission dynamic and decision analytic models to determine the anticipated impact of hand hygiene interventions on MRSA bloodstream infection incidence and evaluate the cost-effectiveness. They conducted the research in a middle-income country.
Here are four study findings:
1. Interventions increasing hand hygiene compliance from a 10 percent baseline to more than 20 percent are likely to be cost-effective solely through reduced MRSA bloodstream infections.
2. Increasing compliance from 10 percent to 40 percent was estimated to cost $2,515 per 10,000 bed-days with 3.8 quality-adjusted life-years gained in a pediatric intensive care unit.
3. Increasing compliance from 10 percent to 40 percent was estimated to cost $1,743 per 10,000 bed-days with 3.7 quality-adjusted life-years gained in an adult ICU.
4. If baseline compliance is not more than 20 percent, the intervention is always cost-effective even with only a 10 percent compliance improvement.