1,720,971 research outputs found
Economics and preventing healthcare acquired infection
No full textThe evolution of organisms that cause healthcare acquired infections (HAI) puts extra stress on hospitals already struggling with rising costs and demands for greater productivity and cost containment. Infection control can save scarce resources, lives, and possibly a facility’s reputation, but statistics and epidemiology are not always sufficient to make the case for the added expense. Economics and Preventing Healthcare Acquired Infection presents a rigorous analytic framework for dealing with this increasingly serious problem. ----- \ud
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Engagingly written for the economics non-specialist, and brimming with tables, charts, and case examples, the book lays out the concepts of economic analysis in clear, real-world terms so that infection control professionals or infection preventionists will gain competence in developing analyses of their own, and be confident in the arguments they present to decision-makers. The authors: -----\ud
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Ground the reader in the basic principles and language of economics. -----\ud
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Explain the role of health economists in general and in terms of infection prevention and control. -----\ud
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Introduce the concept of economic appraisal, showing how to frame the problem, evaluate and use data, and account for uncertainty. -----\ud
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Review methods of estimating and interpreting the costs and health benefits of HAI control programs and prevention methods. -----\ud
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Walk the reader through a published economic appraisal of an infection reduction program. -----\ud
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Identify current and emerging applications of economics in infection control. ----\ud
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Economics and Preventing Healthcare Acquired Infection is a unique resource for practitioners and researchers in infection prevention, control and healthcare economics. It offers valuable alternate perspective for professionals in health services research, healthcare epidemiology, healthcare management, and hospital administration. -----\ud
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Written for:\ud
Professionals and researchers in infection control, health services research, hospital epidemiology, healthcare economics, healthcare management, hospital administration; Association of Professionals in Infection Control (APIC), Society for Healthcare Epidemiologists of America (SHEA)\u
Using economic data to reduce healthcare-acquired infection
No full textIn this issue Burns et al. report an estimate of the economic loss to Auckland City Hospital from cases of healthcare-associated bloodstream infection. They show that patients with infection stay longer in hospital and this must impose an opportunity cost because beds are blocked. Harder to measure costs fall on patients, their families and non-acute health services. Patients face some risk of dying from the infection
Humans, ‘things’ and space : costing hospital infection control interventions
No full textBackground: Previous attempts at costing infection control programmes have tended to focus on accounting costs rather than economic costs. For studies using economic costs, estimates tend to be quite crude and probably underestimate the true cost. One of the largest costs of any intervention is staff time, but this cost is difficult to quantify and has been largely ignored in previous attempts.\ud
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Aim: To design and evaluate the costs of hospital-based infection control interventions or programmes. This article also discusses several issues to consider when costing interventions, and suggests strategies for overcoming these issues.\ud
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Methods: Previous literature and techniques in both health economics and psychology are reviewed and synthesized.\ud
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Findings: This article provides a set of generic, transferable costing guidelines. Key principles such as definition of study scope and focus on large costs, as well as pitfalls (e.g. overconfidence and uncertainty), are discussed.\ud
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Conclusion: These new guidelines can be used by hospital staff and other researchers to cost their infection control programmes and interventions more accurately
Costs of health care associated infection
No full textKey points:\ud
* The costs of health care infections (HIAs) are difficult to measure and value.\ud
* The costs are an important consideration for any decision to increase investment in infection control programs\ud
* The greatest cost is bed days lost to infection within the hospital sector\ud
* The value of these bed days depends on the need of the general population to access hospital services and the willingness of decision makers to pay for these services\ud
* Based on the available data and a number of assumptions, it is estimated that almost two million bed days are lost to infection per year in Australia\ud
* The data must be interpreted carefully because not all infections can be prevented\ud
* There are also many private and difficult-to-value costs associated with infection: these include pain and suffering for patients and their families\ud
Recommendation on costs of health care associated infections\ud
1. The process of attributing costs to HAI should be expressed in terms of the number of bed days that are released by effective infection control programs as well as any savings in variable costs
Economics and preventing hospital-acquired infection: Broadening the perspective
Full text linkObjective. To present a hypothetical model of the change in economic costs and health benefits to society that result from nosocomial infection control programs. Design. We use a modeling framework to represent how 2 types of costs change with nosocomial infection control programs: costs incurred by the hospital sector and community health services, as well as the private costs to patients. We also demonstrate how to value the health benefits of nosocomial infection control programs, using quality-adjusted life years. Setting. Hypothetical modeling to incorporate the societal perspective. Subjects. A cohort of 50,000 simulated patients at risk of surgical site infection following total hip replacement. Intervention(s). A total of 8 hypothetical interventions that change costs and health outcomes among the cohort by preventing cases of surgical site infection following total hip replacement. Results and Conclusions. We demonstrate that when infection control interventions reduce economic costs and increase health benefits, they should be adopted without further question. If, however, interventions increase economic costs and increase health benefits, then the trade -off between costs and benefits should be examined. Decision-makers should assess the cost per unit of health benefit from infection control programs, consider the impact on health budgets, and compare infection control with alternative uses of scarce healthcare resources
Economic evaluation and catheter-related bloodstream infections
Full text linkCatheter-related bloodstream infections are a serious\ud
problem. Many interventions reduce risk, and some have\ud
been evaluated in cost-effectiveness studies. We review the\ud
usefulness and quality of these economic studies. Evidence\ud
is incomplete, and data required to inform a coherent policy\ud
are missing. The cost-effectiveness studies are characterized\ud
by a lack of transparency, short time-horizons, and narrow\ud
economic perspectives. Data quality is low for some\ud
important model parameters. Authors of future economic\ud
evaluations should aim to model the complete policy and\ud
not just single interventions. They should be rigorous in developing\ud
the structure of the economic model, include all\ud
relevant economic outcomes, use a systematic approach\ud
for selecting data sources for model parameters, and propagate\ud
the effect of uncertainty in model parameters on conclusions.\ud
This will inform future data collection and improve\ud
our understanding of the economics of preventing these\ud
infections
Linking scientific evidence and decision making : A case study of hand hygiene interventions
No full textWe consider how data from scientific research should be used for decision making in health services. Whether a hand hygiene intervention to reduce risk of nosocomial infection should be widely adopted is the case study. Improving hand hygiene has been described as the most important measure to prevent nosocomial infection.\ud
1 Transmission of microorganisms is reduced, and fewer infections arise, which leads to a reduction in mortality2 and cost savings.3 Implementing a hand hygiene program is itself costly, so the extra investment should be tested for cost-effectiveness.4,5\ud
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The first part of our commentary is about cost-effectiveness models and how they inform decision making for health services. The second part is about how data on the effectiveness of hand hygiene programs arising from scientific studies are used, and 2 points are made: the threshold for statistical inference of .05 used to judge effectiveness studies is not important for decision making,6,7 and potentially valuable evidence about effectiveness might be excluded by decision makers because it is deemed low quality.8 The ideas put forward will help researchers and health services decision makers to appraise scientific evidence in a more powerful way
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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