[Costs due to urinary tract infections in Germany. An estimation based on the data from the German National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance System]

Abstract

Background: We estimated the avoidable costs due to nosocomial urinary tract infections (UTI) based on the data of the German National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance System (KISS).

Methods: The incidence of nosocomial UTI derived from KISS reference data. The overall number of patient days was obtained from the "Statistische Bundesamt" (German Federal Office of Statistics). Expected costs for a single UTI were estimated according to data published in the medical literature.

Results: On average, there were 1.87 UTI on intensive care units (ICU) and 0.81 UTI on peripheral wards per 1,000 patient days; 4.5% of the annual 146.1 million patient days in German hospitals were contributed by ICUs. In total, there are approximately 155,000 nosocomial UTI every year. Each UTI leads to costs of about 1,000 euros; 20% of all nosocomial infections are preventable.

Conclusions: Just for nosocomial UTI, appropriate infection control measures may reduce the annual health care costs by 14,500 euros for every German hospital.