Hospital Costs for Patients with Hospital Acquired Infections in a Norwegian Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Summary All patients in a Norwegian tertiary care university hospital were screened for hospital acquired infection (HAI) on six dates during 2005 and 2006. The hospital costs for all patients were estimated according to a national standard. A total of 159 patients with HAI and 2689 control patients were identified. The median hospital cost for HAI patients was found to be NOK 381 716 (EUR 45 547) compared to NOK 153 512 (EUR 19 122) for controls. The excessive costs for patients with HAI were most pronounced in the second and third cost quartiles. In the fourth quartile, calculated hospital costs were lower for patients with HAI compared to controls. However, the uncertainty of the cost calculation increased with rising hospital cost. Median length of stay (LOS) was 20 days and three days respectively, but median LOS before appearance of HAI was six days, suggesting that the two groups of patients were not directly comparable. This was corroborated by the diagnosis related groups (DRG) weights which were 2.5 times higher among patients with HAI. When patients with LOS shorter than four days were excluded from the analysis, the cost difference between the two groups was eliminated.