HOW CRBSIs REDUCE PROFITS

In February 2007 the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) published a briefing titled “Dispelling the Myths: The True Cost of Healthcare-Associated Infections.” In it, the authors reported on a recent study of 1.69 million admissions at 77 hospitals; this revealed that patients with a healthcare-acquired infection reduced overall net inpatient profit margins by a total of $286 million (or $5,018 per infected patient). The study also found that “in classes where reimbursement is lower, the loss impact is even greater.”¹

To bolster their point about infections eroding profitability, the APIC briefing’s authors cite the results of a 40-hospital campaign by the Jewish Health Foundation and Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative to eliminate central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABs). The experience at Allegheny General Hospital was especially noteworthy. This institution reduced CLABs by 90 percent, and in doing so recorded the following data:

This becomes an even larger economic issue for hospitals when the new Medicare regulations, effective October 2008, will withhold payments to hospitals for vascular catheter-associated infections.²