Volume 12, Number 5—May 2006
Dispatch
Costs of Surgical Site Infections That Appear after Hospital Discharge
Nicholas Graves*†
, Kate Halton*†, Merrilyn Curtis*, Shane Doidge*, David Lairson‡, Marylou McLaws§, and Michael Whitby*
, Kate Halton*†, Merrilyn Curtis*, Shane Doidge*, David Lairson‡, Marylou McLaws§, and Michael Whitby*Table 2
Cost outcomes*
| Outcome | Mean (SD) |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| No SSI, n = 411 | SSI, n = 38 | ||
| Healthcare services | |||
| No. contacts with hospital-based services in 4 wk PD | 1.10 (1.68) | 1.11 (1.43) | |
| Cost of contacts with hospital-based services in 4 wk PD ($) | 40 (60) | 40 (52) | |
| No. contacts with community-based services in 4 wk PD | 1.85 (2.72) | 3.13 (3.04) | |
| Cost of contacts with community-based services in 4 wk PD ($) | 62 (103) | 105 (111) | |
| No. tests/swabs | 0.48 (1.43) | 0.71 (1.27) | |
| Costs of tests/swabs ($) | 11 (35) | 16 (28) | |
| No. of days on antimicrobial drugs during 4 wk PD | 0.96 (3.10) | 6.76 (8.23) | |
| Costs of antimicrobial drugs | 2.16 (9.08) | 14.47 (19.96) | |
| Sum of all costs incurred by health care services, excluding costs of readmission ($) | 115 (128) | 176 (144) | |
| Sum of all costs incurred by health care services, including costs of readmission ($) | 417 (3050) | 2,361 (8,811) | |
| Production losses | |||
| Patient production losses during 4 wk PD (min) | 5,237 (5,488) | 7,295 (6,349) | |
| Monetary valuation of patient production losses ($) | 1,895 (1,986) | 2,640 (2,298) | |
| Informal care givers production losses during 4 wk PD | 1,630 (2,329) | 2,863 (3,168) | |
| Monetary valuation of Informal care giver production losses ($) | 590 (843) | 1,036 (1,146) | |
| Private costs | |||
| Time patient spent accessing hospital services (min) | 169 (444) | 184 (338) | |
| Time patient spent accessing community-based services (min) | 129 (410) | 282.76 (528.14) | |
| Total out-of-pocket expenditures during 4 wk PD ($) | 5 (19) | 4 (21) | |
| SF-12 Physical Component Summary (enrollment) | 39.15 (11.76) | 37.63 (12.24) | |
| SF-12 Mental Component Summary (enrollment) | 50.37 (10.06) | 48.87 (10.60) | |
| SF-12 Physical Component Summary (wk 4) | 39.03 (8.84) | 37.68 (8.04) | |
| SF-12 Mental Component Summary (wk 4) | 53.92 (8.35) | 52.06 (11.10) | |
*SSI, surgical site infection; PD, postdischarge; min, minutes of time.
