Article Text
PDF
Abstract
Introduction Despite global efforts, Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) continue to be prevalent adverse events in medical assistance. Nowadays, the selection of the most suitable and cost-effective infection prevention programs is not fully defined.
Aim To evidence the cost savings of a project preventing HAIs in intensive care units (ICUs).
Methods A micro-costing study focused on financial data related to a nationwide multicentric project preventing three critical HAIs: central-line associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI), ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), and catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI). This collaborative employs a quality improvement (QI) framework implementing a multifaceted strategy to enhance infection control measures in adult, pediatric, and neonatal Brazilian public ICUs. Participating institutions reported the number of patients with and without HAIs, accompanied by information on the aggregate average cost of each HAI analyzed. The pre-intervention period (September 2020 to October 2021) evidenced an average cost in adult, paediatric, and neonatal ICUs respectively, of R$53,103, R$83,112, and R$80,284 for CLABSI; R$61,494, R$109,198, and R$42,062 for VAP; and R$46,766, and R$136,331 for CAUTI (not included neonatal ICUs). The cost savings and overall gain were estimated using the collaborative intervention period from September 2021 to December 2023.
Results Thirty-one institutions completed and provided the requested data with 100% accuracy, representing 16% of participating ICUs of the collaborative. Considering the prevented 7,443 HAIs for adult, paediatric and neonatal ICUs respectively: 1,647, 167, and 205 CLABSI; 3,775, 128, and 118 VAP; and 1,377 and 26 CAUTI, we estimated a financial impact of R$437million (US$87million) to public health system, leading to an estimated return on investment (ROI) of 911%.
Conclusion This QI Collaborative is a value-based initiative preventing HAIs in adult, paediatric, and neonatal ICUs in South American settings. The substantial cost savings, coupled with a remarkable ROI, underscore the economic viability of investing in comprehensive infection prevention strategies.
This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.