Surgical site infections after craniotomy: a matched health-care cost and length of stay study
Objective: To assess the extra health-care costs and length of stay
resulting from surgical site infection (SSI), as well as to identify the
most frequent aetiological microorganisms of SSIs among Jordanian
craniotomy surgery patients.
Method: A retrospective, descriptive, correlational and nested 1:1
matched case-control design was used. A computerised list of
patients, who underwent surgery between May 2009 and March
2015, was generated in the targeted hospital. A final bill for every
selected patient was also determined. Patients were divided equally
into two groups: patients with an SSI and patients without an SSI.
Results: A total of 64 patients were recruited. The SSI-group had a
significant higher mean health-care cost of $7,899.08 (p=0.001) and a
longer stay in hospital (mean additional days: 23.17) than the non?SSI
group. Furthermore, Acinetobacter baumannii and Staphylococcus
aureus were determined as the most predominant causative agents
of SSI, at 39.1% and 26.1% of SSI patients, respectively.
Conclusion: The results of this study can be considered as a
baseline for national benchmarking to evaluate the quality of care
provided to targeted patients. This study should encourage nurse
administrators to adopt protocols and strategies that promote
infection control measures, as well as to develop new methods of
surveillance on universal precautions adherence. This may limit
pathogen contamination in the surgical wound, shorten length of stay
and decrease health-care costs.