Cost Analysis for Patients with Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

The concept of improving the quality and safety of healthcare is well known. However, a follow-up question is often asked about whether these improvements are cost-effective. The prevalence of nosocomial infections (NIs) in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is approximately 30% in developing countries. Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is the second most common NI in the NICU. Reducing the incidence of NIs can offer patients better and safer treatment and at the same time can provide cost savings for hospitals and payers. The aim of the study is to assess the direct costs of VAP in the NICU. This is a prospective study, conducted between January 2017 and June 2018 in the NICU of University Hospital “St. George” Plovdiv, Bulgaria. During this period, 107 neonates were ventilated for more than 48 h and included in the study. The costs for the hospital stay are based on the records from the Accounting Database of the setting. The differences directly attributable to VAP are presented both as an absolute value and percentage, based on the difference between the values of the analyzed variables. There are no statistically significant differences between patients with and without VAP in terms of age, sex, APGAR score, time of admission after birth and survival. We confirmed differences between the median birth weight (U = 924, p = 0.045) and average gestational age (t = 2.14, p = 0.035) of the patients in the two study groups. The median length of stay (patient-days) for patients with VAP is 32 days, compared to 18 days for non-VAP patients (U = 1752, p < 0.001). The attributive hospital stay due to VAP is 14 days. The median hospital costs for patients with VAP are estimated at €3675.77, compared to the lower expenses of €2327.78 for non-VAP patients (U = 1791.5, p < 0.001). The median cost for antibiotic therapy for patients with VAP is €432.79, compared to €351.61 for patients without VAP (U = 1556, p = 0.024). Our analysis confirms the results of other studies that the increased length of hospital stays due to VAP results in an increase in hospital costs. VAP is particularly associated with prematurity, low birth weight and prolonged mechanical ventilation.