What are some of the financial problems associated with hospital acquired infections (HAIs)?
The prevention of infections is one of our system-wide goals. The cost of infections to a health system has increased significantly. For instance, a hospital receives a set number of dollars for different procedures. The standard process was, if you get an infection during gall bladder surgery, sub-DRGs were added in and the hospital was paid for those procedures. But that still does not offset the total cost of an infection. Now insurers are saying that if an infection was acquired in your hospital, we’re not going to pay you anything. The prevention of infections and good risk assessment is important on all levels: cost, patient satisfaction, staff satisfaction and quality. You have a strong program to prevent HAIs. What is the financial impact of this program? A good example of the financial impact of this is in cardiac surgery. The cost per case for patients with infections averages about $63,000 compared to a $20,000 cost per case for a patient without an infection. You can see im
