Economic burden of nosocomial pneumonia in non-intensive care clinics

Almost all data on the cost of nosocomial pneumonia (NP) in the literature is associated with ventilator-associated pneumonia. This study aims to determine the economic burden of nosocomial pneumonia in clinical inpatients.

Data on costs of the 154 adult patients (97 male, 57 female; mean age 64.53 ± 14.92) who were hospitalized in non-intensive care clinics and developed NP were recorded prospectively. The control group consisted of 148 patients without pneumonia matched for age (mean age 65.66 ± 13.86), sex (94 male), diagnosis, and hospitalization date. Data obtained from both groups of patients for the number of hospitalization days and the data obtained from the hospital automation program (Avicenna) for costs were compared using the Mann-Whitney U test.

While the mean duration of hospitalization was 32.8 days in patients with NP, it was 9.8 (p< 0.0001) in the control group. The cost of hospital beds was $631 for NP patients and $153 for the controls (p< 0.0001). The total cost was $6241 for NP patients and $1117 for the controls (p< 0.0001).

NP is a high-cost condition that increases the duration of hospitalization 3.5-fold, hospital-bed cost 4-fold, and the total cost 5-fold.