Abstract
The economics of preventing hospital-acquired infections is most often described in general terms. The underlying concepts and mechanisms are rarely made explicit but should be understood for research and policy-making. We define the key economic concepts and specify an illustrative model that uses hypothetical data to identify how two related questions might be addressed: 1) how much should be invested for infection control, and 2) what are the most appropriate infection-control programs? We aim to make explicit the economics of preventing hospital-acquired infections.
Highlights
1 in 10 hospitalized patients will acquire an infection after admission, which results in substantial economic cost [1]
If these resources have a value in an alternative use, the infection control programs can be credited with generating cost savings; these infection control programs are costly themselves, so the expense of infection control should be compared to the savings
We demonstrated how the concept of opportunity cost might be used to value the costs of hospital infection and the savings from infection control programs
Summary
The economics of preventing hospital-acquired infections is most often described in general terms. We define the key economic concepts and specify an illustrative model that uses hypothetical data to identify how two related questions might be addressed: 1) how much should be invested for infection control, and 2) what are the most appropriate infection-control programs? We aim to make explicit the economics of preventing hospital-acquired infections. We attempt to make explicit the concepts on which these arguments rely and, in particular, concentrate on providing a framework for answering two questions: how much in total should we invest in prevention for any given infection-control situation, and how should this investment be allocated among competing infection-control strategies? Our aim is to make the economics of prevention explicit while using a minimum of technical language, algebra, and economics jargon We attempt to make explicit the concepts on which these arguments rely and, in particular, concentrate on providing a framework for answering two questions: how much in total should we invest in prevention for any given infection-control situation, and how should this investment be allocated among competing infection-control strategies? Our aim is to make the economics of prevention explicit while using a minimum of technical language, algebra, and economics jargon
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