Estimated Costs Associated with Surgical Site Infections in Patients Undergoing Cholecystectomy

Natividad Algado-Sellés, Javier Mira-Bernabeu, Paula Gras-Valentí, Pablo Chico-Sánchez, Natali Juliet Jiménez-Sepúlveda, Marina Fuster-Pérez, José Sánchez-Payá and Elena María Ronda-Pérez
Additional contact information
Natividad Algado-Sellés: Epidemiology Unit, Preventive Medicine Service, Alicante General University Hospital, 03010 Alicante, Spain
Javier Mira-Bernabeu: Preventive Medicine Service, General University Hospital of San Juan de Alicante, 03550 Sant Joan d’Alacant, Spain
Paula Gras-Valentí: Epidemiology Unit, Preventive Medicine Service, Alicante General University Hospital, 03010 Alicante, Spain
Pablo Chico-Sánchez: Epidemiology Unit, Preventive Medicine Service, Alicante General University Hospital, 03010 Alicante, Spain
Natali Juliet Jiménez-Sepúlveda: Epidemiology Unit, Preventive Medicine Service, Alicante General University Hospital, 03010 Alicante, Spain
Marina Fuster-Pérez: Epidemiology Unit, Preventive Medicine Service, Alicante General University Hospital, 03010 Alicante, Spain
José Sánchez-Payá: Epidemiology Unit, Preventive Medicine Service, Alicante General University Hospital, 03010 Alicante, Spain
Elena María Ronda-Pérez: Area of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, Spain

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 2, 1-9

Abstract: Among healthcare-associated infections, surgical site infections (SSIs) are the most frequent in Spain. The aim of this work was to estimate the costs of SSIs in patients who underwent a cholecystectomy at the Hospital General Universitario de Alicante (Spain) between 2012–2017. This was a prospective observational cohort study. The Active Epidemiological Surveillance Program at our hospital recorded all the cholecystectomies performed. Risk factors associated with the development of SSIs were determined by multivariate analysis and two homogeneous comparison groups were obtained by using the propensity score. The number of extra days of hospital stay were recorded for patients with an SSI and with the cost per hospitalised day data, the additional cost attributed to SSIs was calculated. A total of 2200 cholecystectomies were considered; 110 patients (5.0%) developed an SSI. The average length of hospital stay was 5.6 days longer among patients with an SSI. The cost per SSI was EUR 1890.60 per patient, with the total cost for this period being EUR 207,961.60. SSIs after cholecystectomy lead to a prolongation of hospital stay and an increase in economic costs. It is essential to implement infection surveillance and control programs to reduce SSIs, improve patient safety, and reduce economic burden.

Keywords: cholecystectomy; surgical wound infection; healthcare-associated infections; cost analysis; healthcare costs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/2/764/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/2/764/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:2:p:764-:d:721943

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().