Study: Hospital-associated sepsis, pneumonia infections costly

A study in the Archives of Internal Medicine estimates that sepsis and pneumonia infections contribute to 48,000 deaths and $8.1 billion in added hospital costs annually. Based on a sample of records from 1998 to 2006, the study found that surgery patients who develop sepsis on average stay 11 days longer in the hospital, cost $33,000 more to treat and have a mortality rate of 19.5 percent, while those who develop pneumonia stay 14 days longer, cost $46,000 more to treat and have a mortality rate of 11.4 percent. "This reinforces the need for hospitals to work together to adopt strategies to reduce infections," says Nancy Foster, the American Hospital Association's vice president for quality and patient safety.

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