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Economic Consequences of Hospital Infections in a 1,000-Bed University Hospital in Norway

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Bjørg Marit Andersen
Bjørg Marit Andersen*
Affiliation:
Clinic of Preventive Medicine, Department of Hospital Infections, Ullevål University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
*
Department of Hospital Infections, Clinic for Preventive Medicine, Ullevål Hospital, 0407, Oslo, Norway
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Abstract

Hospital infections were studied among 41,000 patients admitted to a 1,000-bed university hospital in Oslo, Norway. A prevalence rate of 8.5% in 1995 contributed to 14,500 days of extra stay in the hospital. The direct economic consequences of hospital infections was 40 to 50 million Norwegian kroner ($6-$7 million). The extra direct cost per infected patient was 14,300 Norwegian kroner ($2,200). Hospital infections are generating high extra costs and morbidity in countries with good general health care and with few problems with resistant bacteria.

Type
The International Perspective
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 19 , Issue 10 , October 1998 , pp. 805 - 807
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1998

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