Costs of Surgical Site Infections That Appear after Hospital Discharge

Abstract

Data were collected from surgical patients in the hospital and on 4 occasions postdischarge. The incidence of postdischarge surgical site infection was 8.46%. Strong evidence showed that these infections caused minor additional costs, which contradicts existing literature. We discuss why previous studies might have overstated costs.

Keywords

• costs and cost analysis
• surgical wound infection
• community health services
• economics
• patient discharge
• hospitalization