BACKGROUND

Health care-associated infections (HAIs) are costly, and existing national cost estimates are out-of-date.

METHODS

We retrospectively analyzed the Agency for Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project's 2016 National Inpatient Sample, the largest all-payer U.S. inpatient database. We included all inpatient encounters with primary or secondary International Classification of Disease, 10th Revision Clinical Modification diagnosis codes corresponding to infection with catheter-associated urinary tract infections (T85.511), catheter- and line-associated blood stream infections (T80.211), surgical site infections (SSIs; T81.49), ventilator-associated pneumonias (J95.851), and Infection with Clostridioides difficile (CDI; A04.7). We combined HAI incidence data from the National Inpatient Sample with additional hospital inpatient HAI cost estimates to create national cost estimates for HAI individually and collectively.

RESULTS

In 2016, 7.2 to 14.9 billion U.S. dollars were spent on HAIs in the United States. For admissions with any diagnosis of HAI, the frequencies of HAI in descending order were as follows: CDI (n = 356,754 [56%]), SSI (n = 196,215 [31%]), catheter- and line-associated blood stream infection (n = 42,811 [7%]), catheter-associated urinary tract infection (n = 23,546 [4%]), and ventilator-associated pneumonia (n = 16,767 [3%]). Collectively, CDI and SSI accounted for 79% of the cost of HAI in the United States.

CONCLUSIONS

Health care-associated infections remain a significant economic burden for health care systems in the United States.