Source: Te Tāhū Hauora Health Quality & Safety Commission
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in public hospitals are estimated to have cost the health care system $955 million in 2021 and to have caused more disability than road traffic crashes.
These infections can have a significant impact on patients and their whānau, causing longer hospital stays, delaying return to work or normal activities and, in severe cases, can lead to death. There are also additional costs for primary and community-based care, such as follow up GP visits and rehabilitation.
A paper produced by Te Tāhū Hauora Health Quality & Safety Commission on the annual economic burden of HAIs in terms of cost, deaths and disability has now been published in the Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology journal.
It highlights this national burden and will inform a strategy to reduce HAIs across Aotearoa New Zealand.
Clinical lead of the surgical site infection improvement programme at Te Tāhū Hauora and clinical microbiologist, Dr Arthur Morris, says that understanding the burden infections have on the health care system is an important step toward making positive change.
Dr Morris says, ‘Our data from 2021 shows that the burden of infections on the health care system is high. However, there are already quality improvement activities underway in districts to reduce them happening.
‘One example is the Surgical Site Infection Improvement Programme, which has achieved and sustained 20 and 25 percent reductions in infections following orthopaedic and cardiac surgery respectively.
‘Our goal is to identify which of those activities will have the biggest impact and then roll them out on a national level.’
Dr Morris says our rate of healthcare-associated infections is not unusual internationally.
‘It’s difficult to compare the rate of healthcare-associated infections in New Zealand with those of other countries because there are differences in the surveillance methods.
‘However, reviewing other countries using similar methodology showed the prevalence of these infections in adult patients in New Zealand was comparable to Europe, Wales and Switzerland and less than that of Australia and Singapore.’
Te Tāhū Hauora is working with the health care sector to identify the priorities for improving infection prevention and control practices to reduce healthcare-associated infections.
Background
Te Tāhū Hauora, in partnership with district health boards, carried out Aotearoa New Zealand’s first national point prevalence survey (PPS) of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in public hospitals in 2021.
A report was published by Te Tāhū Hauora in 2022 and the findings were published in Journal of Hospital Infection in 2023.
The data from the national point prevalence survey has now been used to calculate the annual economic burden of HAIs in terms of cost, deaths and disability. These findings are detailed in the paper published in the Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology journal, ‘The burden of healthcare-associated infections in New Zealand public hospitals 2021’.
