The incidence of healthcare-associated infections and the outcomes for patients frequently varies from study to study. To contribute to previous findings in the HAI field, a recent study published in the American Journal of Infection Control included patients across all medical specialties and a follow-up analysis.
The study used data from the Swedish National Point Prevalence Surveys of HAI from 2010 to 2012. It also included data on costs per patient and HAI-related extended length of stay, which were adjusted for sex, age, intensive care unit use and surgery.
The research revealed:
1. Roughly 29 percent of patients with HAI were readmitted, compared to 16.5 percent of patients with no HAI.
2. Looking at total bed days, 9.3 percent was considered to be excess days attributed to the group of patients with an HAI. Excess length of stay made up 11.4 percent of the total costs.
3. The one-year overall mortality rate for patients with HAI compared to all other patients was 1.75, which was considered statistically significant.
"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," concluded the study authors.
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