The healthcare industry is well aware that healthcare-associated infections are a significant financial burden to the country's overall healthcare costs, at the sum of several billion dollars each year.
Researchers conducted a study at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis to determine the attributable inpatient costs of recurrent Clostridium difficile infections. The results were reported in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.
Researchers studied the medical records of nearly 4,000 adult patients who developed an initial C. difficile infection from 2003 through 2009 and analyzed the average cost for those who developed recurrent infections.
They found the average cost of a recurrent C. difficile infection was $11,361.
Researchers suggest better strategies are needed to predict and prevent C. difficile recurrences.
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