Page 17 - Insurance Times January 2018 Sample

Surgical Site Infection. Different infections have a different in a patient during the process of care in a hospital or other
prevalence rates in different wards related to source of health care facility which was neither present nor incubating
infection. Ventilator Associated Pneumonias are more at the time of admission. HCAI can affect patients in any
common in ICUs where patients are on assisted type of setting where they receive care and can also appear
ventilation. Surgical site infections are more frequent in after discharge. Furthermore, they include occupational
surgical wards. Catheter associated Urinary Tract infections among staff. HCAI represents the most frequent
Infections and Central Venous Catheter related Blood adverse and preventable event during care delivery and no
Stream Infections may have high prevalence in both institution or country has ever been able to claim to have
surgical and medical wards. Burns wards also have a high solved the problem as yet.
prevalence rate of HCAI. Gynecology & Obstetrics wards
have usually a low prevalence of HCAIs. Based on a significant amount of data made available from
various countries, it is estimated that each year, hundreds
As the infective organisms originate from the hospital of millions of patients around the world are affected by
flora, they are resistant to many of the commonly used HCAI. The burden of HCAI is several fold higher in low and
antibiotics, thereby necessitating use of higher drugs and middle-income countries than in high-income countries.HCAI
higher cost of treatment.
results in prolonged hospital stays, long-term disability,
The financial impact of this is seen in terms of increased increased resistance of microorganisms to antimicrobials,
burden of treatment costs, from increased Length of Stay massive additional costs for health systems, high costs for
(LOS) loss of earning due to high and prolonged morbidity patients and their family, and unnecessary deaths.
due to absenteeism and loss of earning life span of bread
earner due to higher mortality. This increased cost of Although HCAI is the most frequent adverse event in health
treatment adds to the financial burden to the payers care, its true global burden remains unknown because of
namely, government, insurers as well as patients paying the difficulty in gathering reliable data, most countries lack
out of pocket. surveillance systems for HCAI, and those that do have them
Incidence of HCAI differs from country to country and from struggle with the complexity and the lack of uniformity of
hospital to hospital in different studies and hence the criteria for diagnosing it.[1]
financial burden varies accordingly. Cost of treatment can
be reduced by controlling HCAI. Findings:

Payers such as Government, Insurance companies and Health care associated infection (HCAI), also referred to as
Hospitals should get together to ensure mitigation of the "nosocomial" or "hospital" infection, is an infection occurring
risks of HCAI and bring down the cost of treatments in in a patient during the process of care in a hospital or other
hospitals. health care facility which was not present or incubating at
the time of admission. HCAI can affect patients in any type
Aim: of setting where they receive care and can also appear after
discharge. Furthermore, they include occupational
The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of HCAI infections among staff.[1, 2, 3, 4, 5].
on LOS, morbidity, mortality andhealth care costs.

Methodology:
In an attempt to find all relevant information related to the
topic an extensive search of literature in English language
was performed using online search engines: PubMed, Google
Scholar and other digital sources available online. Basis
PRISMA guidelines 19 articles providing information on LOS
and economic impact in the various types of HCAI were
included in this review article.

Introduction

Health care associated infection (HCAI), also referred to as
"nosocomial" or "hospital" infection, is an infection occurring

The Insurance Times, January 2018 17

Sashi Publications Pvt Ltd Call 8443808873/ 8232083010