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Risk‐adjusted increases in medical resource utilization associated with health care‐associated infections in gastrectomy patients
Author(s) -
Lee Jason,
Imanaka Yuichi,
Sekimoto Miho,
Ishizaki Tatsuro,
Hayashida Kenshi,
Ikai Hiroshi,
Tetsuya Otsubo
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of evaluation in clinical practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.737
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1365-2753
pISSN - 1356-1294
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2753.2009.01121.x
Subject(s) - medicine , psychological intervention , health care , emergency medicine , incidence (geometry) , intensive care medicine , medical costs , acute care , nursing , physics , optics , economics , economic growth
Rationale, aims and objectives Quantifying the impact of health care‐associated infections (HAIs) on medical resource utilization is necessary for payers and providers to appropriately allocate limited resources for interventions. However, previous studies tend to involve single institutions and do not take into account patient and practice variations between several hospitals. The objective of this study was to conduct a multi‐institutional risk‐adjusted comparison of HAI‐associated impact on medical resources in gastrectomy patients in Japan. Methods Health care‐associated infections were identified using a combination of International Classification of Diseases‐10 codes and antibiotic utilization patterns in 1058 gastrectomy patients from 10 Japanese hospitals. Multiple linear regression models and risk adjustment were used to analyse the impact of HAIs on: (1) total hospital costs; (2) antibiotic costs; and (3) post‐surgical length of stay (LOS). Results Overall HAI incidence for the database was 20.3%, with a range of 8.8–29.6% among the 10 hospitals. Regression models showed that HAIs were significantly associated with increases in all three indicators. Risk‐adjusted comparisons revealed that HAIs were associated with an increase of US$2767 (range: US$1035–6513) in overall hospital cost, US$202 (US$98.8–764.6) antibiotic costs and 10.6 (4.7–24 days) post‐surgical LOS days. Conclusions Even after adjusting for patient characteristics and other variables, there was still a high degree of variation observed in the impact of HAIs on total hospital costs and antibiotic costs from a third‐party payer's perspective and post‐surgical LOS among the 10 hospitals. This information can increase the efficiency of allocation of resources for interventions to reduce HAIs.