Costs of healthcare-associated infections in an Intensive Care Unit

Estimating the savings of a national project to prevent healthcare-associated infections in intensive care units

BACKGROUND

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) have a significant impact on patients' morbidity and mortality, and have a detrimental financial impact on the healthcare system. Various strategies exist to prevent HAIs, but economic evaluations are needed to determine which are most appropriate.

AIM

To present the financial impact of a nationwide project on HAI prevention in intensive care units (ICUs) using a quality improvement (QI) approach.

METHODS

A health economic evaluation assessed the financial results of the QI initiative 'Saúde em Nossas Mãos' (SNM), implemented in Brazil between January 2018 and December 2020. Among 116 participating institutions, 13 (11.2%) fully reported the aggregate cost and stratified patients (with vs without HAIs) in the pre-intervention and post-intervention periods. Average cost (AC) was calculated for each analysed HAI: central-line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs), ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs). The absorption model and time-driven activity-based costing were used for cost estimations. The numbers of infections that the project could have prevented during its implementation were estimated to demonstrate the financial impact of the SNM initiative.

RESULTS

The aggregated ACs calculated for each HAI from these 13 ICUs - US$8480 for CLABSIs, US$10,039 for VAP, and US$7464 for CAUTIs - were extrapolated to the total number of HAIs prevented by the project (1727 CLABSIs, 3797 VAP and 2150 CAUTIs). The overall savings of the SNM as of December 2020 were estimated at US$68.8 million, with an estimated return on investment (ROI) of 765%.

CONCLUSION

Reporting accurate financial data on HAI prevention strategies is still challenging in Brazil. These results suggest that a national QI initiative to prevent HAIs in critical care settings is a feasible and value-based approach, reducing financial waste and yielding a significant ROI for the healthcare system.

Application of ventilator-associated events (VAE) in ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) notified in Brazil (IMPACTO MR-PAV): a protocol for a cohort study

INTRODUCTION

Certain criteria for ventilator-associated events (VAE) definition might influence the type of an event, its detection rate and consequently the resource expenditure in intensive care unit. The Impact of Infections by Antimicrobial-Resistant Microorganisms - Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia (IMPACTO MR-PAV) aims to evaluate the incidence and diagnostic accuracy of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) using the current criteria for VAP surveillance in Brazil versus the VAE criteria defined by the US National Healthcare Safety Network-Center for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) criteria.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

The study will be conducted in around 15 centres across Brazil from October 2022 to December 2023. Trained healthcare professionals will collect data and compare the incidence of VAP using both the current criteria for VAP surveillance in Brazil and the VAE criteria defined by the CDC. The accuracy of the two criteria for identifying VAP will also be analysed. It will also characterise other events associated with mechanical ventilation (ventilator-associated condition, infection-related ventilator-associated complication) and adjudicate VAP reported to the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (ANVISA) using current epidemiological diagnostic criteria.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board under the number 52354721.0.1001.0070. The study's primary outcome measure will be the incidence of VAP using the two different surveillance criteria, and the secondary outcome measures will be the accuracy of the two criteria for identifying VAP and the adjudication of VAP reported to ANVISA. The results will contribute to the improvement of VAP surveillance in Brazil and may have implications for other countries that use similar criteria.

TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER

NCT05589727; Clinicaltrials.gov.

Increased ompW and ompA expression and higher virulence of Acinetobacter baumannii persister cells

BACKGROUND

Acinetobacter baumannii is one of the main causes of healthcare-associated infections that threaten public health, and carbapenems, such as meropenem, have been a therapeutic option for these infections. Therapeutic failure is mainly due to the antimicrobial resistance of A. baumannii, as well as the presence of persister cells. Persisters constitute a fraction of the bacterial population that present a transient phenotype capable of tolerating supra-lethal concentrations of antibiotics. Some proteins have been suggested to be involved in the onset and/or maintenance of this phenotype. Thus, we investigated the mRNA levels of the adeB (AdeABC efflux pump component), ompA, and ompW (outer membrane proteins) in A. baumannii cells before and after exposure to meropenem.

RESULTS

We found a significant increase (p-value < 0.05) in the expression of ompA (> 5.5-fold) and ompW (> 10.5-fold) in persisters. However, adeB did not show significantly different expression levels when comparing treated and untreated cells. Therefore, we suggest that these outer membrane proteins, especially OmpW, could be part of the mechanism of A. baumannii persisters to deal with the presence of high doses of meropenem. We also observed in the Galleria mellonella larvae model that persister cells are more virulent than regular ones, as evidenced by their LD₅₀ values.

CONCLUSIONS

Taken together, these data contribute to the understanding of the phenotypic features of A. baumannii persisters and their relation to virulence, as well as highlight OmpW and OmpA as potential targets for drug development against A. baumannii persisters.

Clinical Impact and Risk Factors of Intensive Care Unit-Acquired Nosocomial Infection: A Propensity Score-Matching Study from 2018 to 2020 in a Teaching Hospital in China

Purpose

Nosocomial infection (NI) is associated with poor prognosis. The present study assessed the clinical and microbiological characteristics of NI patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) and investigated the clinical impact and risk factors for NI in ICU patients.

Patients and Methods

An observational study was conducted in an adult general ICU. The electronic medical records of all patients admitted to the ICU for >2 days from 2018-2020 were analyzed retrospectively. Multivariate regression models were used to analyze the risk factors for NI in ICU patients. Propensity score-matching (PSM) was used to control the confounding factors between the case and control groups, thus analyzing the clinical impact of NIs.

Results

The present study included 2425 patient admissions, of which 231 (9.53%) had NI. Acinetobacter baumannii (33.0%) was the most common bacteria. Long-term immunosuppressive therapy, disturbance of consciousness, blood transfusion, multiple organ dysfunction syndromes (MODS), treatment with three or more antibiotics, mechanical ventilation (MV), tracheotomy, the urinary catheter (UC), nasogastric catheter, and central venous catheter (CVC) were risk factors for NI in the ICU patients. After PSM, patients with NI had a prolonged length of stay (LOS) in the ICU and hospital, significant hospitalization expenses (all p<0.001), increased mortality (p=0.027), and predicted mortality (p=0.007). The differences in the ICU and hospital LOSs among three pathogens were statistically significant (p<0.001); the results of the Escherichia coli infection group were lower than the other two pathogenic groups.

Conclusion

NI was associated with poor outcomes. The risk factors for NI identified in this study provided further insight into preventing NI.

Bir yoğun bakım ünitesinde sık görülen enfeksiyonların önlenmesi için bir bakım paketinin etkinlik ve maliyetinin analizi: Yarı deneysel bir öntest-sontest tasarım çalışması

Amaç Sağlık hizmeti ilişkili enfeksiyonlar hasta güvenliğini tehdit etmekte, hastanede yatış süresinin uzamasına, morbidite, mortalite ve maliyetlerin artmasına neden olmaktadır. Bu çalışma, sağlık hizmeti ilişkili enfeksiyonları önlemeye yönelik müdahalelerin etkinliğini ve bu müdahalelerin maliyete etkisini değerlendirmek amacıyla yapılmıştır. Metod Bu araştırma bir yoğun bakım ünitesinde 1 Ocak – 30 Haziran 2018 ile 1 Ekim 2018 – 31 Mart 2019 tarihleri arasında 27 eğitim öncesi ve 27 eğitim sonrası olmak üzere toplam 54 hasta ile yarı deneysel ön test-son test tasarım çalışması olarak yapılmıştır. Bulgular Çalışmada enfeksiyon oranları Ocak-Mart 2018'de 20.34, Nisan-Haziran 2018'de 25.7, Ekim-Aralık 2018'de 20.97 ve Ocak-Mart 2019'da 17.77 olarak bulunmuştur. Dört farklı dönemin enfeksiyon oranları karşılaştırıldığında, eğitim öncesine göre eğitim sonrasında enfeksiyon oranlarında azalma olduğu ancak bu düşüşün istatistiksel olarak anlamlı olmadığı saptanmıştır (p>0.05). Eğitim öncesi ortalama maliyet 11361.35₺, eğitim sonrası ortalama maliyet 9149.87₺ olarak belirlenmiştir. Tüm maliyetlerin en önemlisi olan ortalama yatak maliyeti eğitim öncesine göre %95 güven aralığında %25,7 oranında azalmıştır. (5241.86₺-13251.50₺, sırasıyla 3489.03₺-10257.41₺). Sonuç Sonuç olarak, çalışmada eğitimin yoğun bakım hemşirelerinin sağlık hizmeti ilişkili enfeksiyonlara ilişkin puanlarında anlamlı bir artış sağladığı, sağlık hizmeti ilişkili enfeksiyon oranlarında, hastanede kalış sürelerinde ve eğitim sonrası maliyette istatistiksel olarak anlamlı olmasa da azalma sağladığı belirlenmiştir.