| |
|
Headlines:
|
 |
Back to Infectious Disease Articles
Thursday 11th August, 2005
|
|
|
Staphylococcus aureus infections create an enormous burden to hospitals by
significantly increasing costs, length of patient stays and mortality rates.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Staphylococcus aureus infections (S. aureus) create an enormous
burden to hospitals by significantly increasing costs, length of patient
stays and mortality rates, a Northwestern Memorial Hospital researcher
found in the most comprehensive study to date, published today's
Archives of Internal Medicine. The study, led by Gary Noskin, MD, an
infectious diseases specialist and medical director of healthcare
epidemiology and quality at Northwestern Memorial, examined two years of
data from hundreds of hospitals.
"S. aureus
infections represent a considerable burden to U.S. hospitals,
particularly among high-risk patient populations," said Dr. Noskin. "The
potential benefits to hospitals in terms of reduced use of resources and
costs, as well as improved outcomes from preventing
S. aureus
infections, are significant."
"There are currently a number of things being done to reduce the
number of hospital-acquired
S. aureus
infections, including use of
antibiotics to prevent surgical site infections, consistent
hand-washing and maximum barrier protections when putting in central
lines," adds Dr. Noskin. "There are also strategies to reduce
S. aureus
infections that are brought into the hospital such as performing a nasal
swab to screen for
S. aureus
then attempting to eliminate it. Another important intervention is to
make sure patients with certain infections are placed in isolation."
|
|
|
|
Are you a doctor or a nurse?
Do you want to join the Doctors Lounge online medical community?
Participate in editorial activities (publish, peer review, edit) and
give a helping hand to the largest online community of patients.
Click on the link below to see the requirements:
Doctors Lounge Membership
Application |
|
S. aureus
infection was listed as a discharge diagnosis in nearly 1 percent of all
hospital stays, or an average of 292,045 stays in a year, the study
found. And S.
aureus infection stays had, on average, 3 times the length of stay
(14.3 vs. 4.5 days), three times the total charges ($48,824 vs.
$14,141), and five times the risk of in-hospital death (11.2 percent vs.
2.3 percent) than stays without this infection. Even when controlling
for patient differences in age, gender, race and comorbidities, the
differences were significant: 9.1 days in excess length of stay, $32,856
in excess charges and 4 percent in-hospital mortality.
Applying these per stay estimates to the total number of
S. aureus
stays in the United States in a given year results in an estimated 2.7
million days in excess length of stay, $9.5 billion in excess charges,
and close to 12,000 inpatient deaths per year. The differences remained
significant when also comparing hospitalizations with
S. aureus
infections with other types of infections.
The study did not distinguish between infections that occurred before
admission to the hospital or during a hospital stay. Also, the inability
to measure "out of hospital" mortality, or mortality subsequent to the
hospital stay, likely underestimates the impact of
S. aureus
infections on mortality.
S. aureus
is a bacterium, frequently living on the skin or in the nose of a
healthy person that can cause illnesses ranging from minor skin
infections and abscesses, to life-threatening diseases. Long recognized
as a frequent cause of healthcare-associated infections in acute care
hospitals, it is often responsible for hospital-acquired pneumonia and
surgical site infections, and is the second most common cause of
bloodstream infections. An increasing percentage of
S. aureus
infections are caused by antibiotic resistant strains of the organism.
3M Healthcare was a study sponsor and financial support also came
from a grant from the U.S. Public Health Service. According to Edwin
Hedblom, health economic business manager from 3M Health Care, "no prior
study has estimated the impact of
S. aureus
infections to this degree, in terms of clinical and financial outcomes
that include length of stay (LOS), total charges, and in-hospital
mortality, from nationally representative data."
Patient discharge data from 994 hospitals in 28 states in 2000 and
986 hospitals in 33 states in 2001 -- representing approximately 14
millions inpatient stays -- was analyzed to determine the association of
S. aureus
infections with length of stay, total charges and in-hospital mortality.
Other findings include:
- Patients undergoing an orthopedic, cardiovascular, and
neurosurgical procedure that have
S. aureus
infection spent 16.6 additional days in the hospital and at a cost
of $68,944 as compared to patients without
S. aureus
infections.
- Patients undergoing an orthopedic, cardiovascular or
neurosurgical procedure with
S. aureus
infections had a nearly five-fold risk of in-hospital death compared
to patients without this infection. The differential in absolute
risk of mortality was greatest for cardiovascular procedures.
- Among the hospitalizations analyzed,
S. aureus
infections were most likely to occur in neurosurgery stays (1.4
percent) and least likely to occur in orthopedic surgery stays (0.3
percent).
###
About Northwestern Memorial Hospital
Northwestern Memorial Hospital is one of the country's premier
academic medical centers and is the primary teaching hospital of
Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. Northwestern
Memorial and its Prentice Women's Hospital and Stone Institute of
Psychiatry have 744 beds and more than 1,200 affiliated physicians and
5,000 employees. Providing state-of-the-art care, Northwestern Memorial
is recognized for its outstanding clinical and surgical advancements in
such areas as cardiothoracic and vascular care, gastroenterology,
neurology and neurosurgery, oncology, organ and bone marrow
transplantation, and women's health.
Northwestern Memorial received the prestigious 2005 National Quality
Health Care Award and is listed in eight specialties in this year's U.S.
News & World Report "America's Best Hospitals" issue. The hospital has
also been cited as one of the "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers"
by Working Mother magazine for the past 5 years and has been chosen by
Chicagoans for a decade as their "most preferred hospital" in National
Research Corporation's annual survey.
|
|
send
to a friend
printer
friendly version
