Economic burden attributable to hospital-acquired infections among tumor patients from a large regional cancer center in Southern China

Background To evaluate the economic loss of hospital acquired infections (HAIs) among tumor patients so as to help policy makers to allocate healthcare resources and address the issue. Methods We conducted a retrospective, 1:1 matched case-control study in a large region cancer hospital between Jan 1 and Dec 31, 2022. The economic burden was estimated as the median of the 1:1 pair differences of various hospitalization fees and hospital length of stay (LOS). Results In this study of 329 matched pairs, the patients with HAIs incurred higher hospitalization cost (i.e., $16927) and experienced longer hospital LOS (i.e., 22 days), compared to the non-HAI groups. The extra hospitalization cost and the prolonged hospital LOS caused by HAIs were $4919 and 9 days, respectively. Accordingly, the direct non-medical economic loss attributable to HAI was approximately $478~835 per case. Furthermore, the increment of hospitalization cost varied by sites of infection, types of tumors and age stratum. Conclusions HAIs lead to the increment of direct economic burden and hospital LOS in tumor patients. Our findings highlight the importance of implementing effective infection control measures in hospitals to reduce financial burden on tumor patients.