A prospective, observational, cost of implementation analysis for the National Infection Surveillance Program for...

The National Infection Surveillance Program for Aged Care (NISPAC) is a new standardised and streamlined infection and antimicrobial use surveillance tool for Australian Residential Aged Care Homes (RACHs). As a part of the program development and implementation, it was identified that the cost of NISPAC implementation in Australian RACHs was currently unknown, and the objective of this study was to determine this cost from the perspective of the Australian Aged Care setting.

The cost of implementation included those of the three coordinating bodies, as well as the individual RACHs who participated in the NISPAC program implementation. Development and implementation resources and costs for the coordinating bodies were determined over a 3 year period and then attributed equally across the participating RACHs. Participating RACHs (n = 69) reported the resources and cost of NISPAC implementation over a 5 month period, and this included salary and non-salary costs (2 months pre-implementation and 3 months of implementation). Costs for the participating RACHs were added to the costs of the coordinating bodies to determine the total cost per RACH. The price year for the analysis was 2024.

The total implementation cost for the three coordinating bodies was $AUD1,869,279, resulting in a mean cost attributed per RACH of $AUD27,091 (SD $AUD0). The mean cost of RACH staff time for the intervention during the pre-implementation planning phase was $276.18 (SD $AUD219.55), and during the implementation phase was $AUD1,146.47 ($AUD1,003.48). The mean cost of NISPAC implementation per RACH was $AUD28,805 (SD $AUD1,137).

The novel NISPAC was a relatively low-cost infection and antimicrobial use surveillance program to implement in RACHs. Future studies are required to establish the cost-effectiveness of the program.