A Study on the Costs of Hospital Infection Control and Prevention / 병원감염관리

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Cost-benefit studies for hospital infection control and prevention (HICP) are often applied to improve the investment for infection control; however, an accurate cost measurement for HICP would be necessary before a cost benefit analysis and establishing a proper policy for HICP. The purpose of this study is to analyze the costs of HICP for the hospital in Korea. METHOD: The costs associated with HICP in the year 2004 were surveyed for 8 university-affiliated teaching hospitals in Seoul and Kyounggi province. The collected data included the costs for standard precaution materials including hand hygiene and personal protective equipments, hospital employee health service, maintenance of hospital facility and environmental control, and operating infection control office. RESULT: The average costs for HICP were estimated to be 785,115 won per one bed per year. Among the contributing factors to the total costs were the cost for patient isolation in private rooms (310,458 won), disinfectants (125,533), hand hygiene materials (99,007), maintenance of hospital environmental hygiene (90,773), operation of infection control office (65,811), personal protective equipment (58,099), and employee health care (35,434). CONCLUSION: We estimated the annual cost of HICP at a minimum of 96,723,000 won for a 100-bed hospital. This study contributes to establishing the basic and necessary data for a proper HICP compensation system by providing various HICP costs for the university hospital.