Economics and Preventing Healthcare Acquired Infection

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

   PDF

2. Economics

   • Nicholas Graves, William Jarvis, Kate Halton

   Pages 9-26

3. Health Economics

   • Nicholas Graves, William Jarvis, Kate Halton

   Pages 27-37

4. Economic Appraisal: A General Framework

   • Nicholas Graves, William Jarvis, Kate Halton

   Pages 39-48

5. Economic Appraisal: The Nuts and Bolts

   • Nicholas Graves, William Jarvis, Kate Halton

   Pages 49-66

6. Changes Arising from the Adoption of Infection Control Programs

   • Nicholas Graves, William Jarvis, Kate Halton

   Pages 67-75

7. Measuring the Cost of Healthcare Acquired Infections

   • Nicholas Graves, William Jarvis, Kate Halton

   Pages 77-96

8. Measuring the Cost of Implementing Infection Control Programs

   • Nicholas Graves, William Jarvis, Kate Halton

   Pages 97-107

9. Preventing HAI and the Health Benefits that Result

   • Nicholas Graves, William Jarvis, Kate Halton

   Pages 109-122

10. Dissecting a Published Economic Appraisal

    • Nicholas Graves, William Jarvis, Kate Halton

    Pages 123-137

11. Economic Facts and the Infection Control Environment

    • Nicholas Graves, William Jarvis, Kate Halton

    Pages 139-152

12. Back Matter

    Pages 153-165

    PDF

Reasons for Writing This Book The published literature on the economic appraisal of healthcare acquired infection (HAI) is described by phrases such as: “With so many virtues of the cost-benefit approach identified, it is perhaps puzzling why greater use of economic appraisal has not been made in the area of infection control” [1] “Clinicians should partner with economists and policy analysts to expand and improve the economic evidence available” [2] “the quality of economic evaluations should be increased to inform decision makers and clinicians” [3] “The economics of preventing hospital-acquired infections is most often described in general terms. The underlying concepts and mechanisms are rarely made explicit but should be understood for research and policy-making” [4] The aim of this book is to describe how economics should be used to inform decisi- making about infection control. Our motivation stems from the previous quotes which show economics is being used within the infection control community, but not to its full potential. Our expectation is that you do not have any formal training in economic analyses. Economic analyses have been used for many decades to argue for increased funding for hospital infection-control. In 1957, Clarke [5] investigated bed wastage in British hospitals due to Staphylococcus aureus in patient’s wounds. She concluded …. “the average length of stay in hospital of patients whose wounds were infected with Staph.

• Hospital
• Hospital Administration
• Infection Prevention
• Stress
• antimicrobial
• care program
• epidemiological
• epidemiology
• healthcare
• hospitals
• infection
• infection control
• infections
• prevention
• prevention and control
• infectious diseases

From the reviews:

"This book on the cost of healthcare-associated infectious is written from an economic rather than an accounting perspective, a difference that is explained in detail … . It is written for infection-control personnel and infectious disease practitioners with no prior knowledge of economics. … Graduate and professional students and researchers in health-related fields with an interest in healthcare epidemiology may find this book a helpful introduction. … it is easy to read and clearly organized." (Linnea A. Polgreen, Doody’s Review Service, August, 2009)

• Institute of Health & Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, Australia

  Nicholas Graves, Kate Halton

• Hilton Head, USA

  William Jarvis

Nicholas Graves is a Senior Research Fellow in Health Economics at the School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology.  He is also a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Australia.

William Jarvis is a well-known figure in infection control.  He was formerly Chief of the Epidemiology Branch at the CDC, as well as Director of the Hospital Infections Program at the CDC.  He is a past President of The Society for Healthcare Epidemiologists of America (SHEA), and is currently Vice-President of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control (APIC).

 

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