Hospital-Acquired Infections Are Shown to Increase Costs & Patient Deaths

According to a report by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, Pennsylvania hospital patients who contracted a hospital-acquired infection in 2004 accrued costs seven times higher and were seven times more likely to die than patients who did not acquire infections. The report examines data on patients with commercial health insurance from 180 hospitals.

Pennsylvania is one of six states that has enacted laws requiring reporting of hospital-acquired infections. None of the other states have collected or published their results.

The report is available online at http://www.phc4.org/reports/researchbriefs/032906/