Analysis of the Efficiency and Cost of a Care Bundle for Prevention of Common Infections in an Intensive Care Unit: A Quasi-Experimental Pretest-Posttest Design Study

Abstract

Objective: Healthcare-associated infections, threaten patient safety, cause prolonged hospitalization, morbidity, mortality and increased costs. This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions to prevent healthcare-associated infections and the effect of these interventions on cost. Methods: A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design study was completed between 1 January and 30 June 2018, and 1 October 2018 and 31 March 2019, in an intensive care unit, with a total of 54 patients, 27 pre-training and 27 post-training. Results: In the study, infection rates were 20.34 in January to March 2018, 25.7 in April to June 2018, 20.97 in October to December 2018 and 17.77 in January to March 2019. When the infection rates of the four different periods were compared, it was found that there was a decrease compared to the pre-training period but that this decrease was not statistically significant (p>0.05). The average cost before the training was 11361.35. and the average cost after the training was 9149.87L. Average bed costs, which are the most important of all costs, decreased by 25.7% compared to pre-training at the 95% confidence interval (5241.86L-13251.50L and 3489.03.10257.41L, respectively). Conclusions: In conclusion, the study determined that training provided a significant increase in the intensive care nurses' scores related to healthcare-associated infections and there were decreases in healthcare-associated infection rates, lengths of hospital stay and cost after the training although these were not statistically significant.