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The cost to treat a single SSI depends on the seriousness of the
infection (superficial or deep), patient comorbidities and surgery
type, not to mention the facility where the surgery took place and
the follow-up care. The average 30-day post-op cost of caring for
patients who suffered SSIs was $52,620, compared to $31,580 for
patients who came out of surgery free of infection — a more than
$20,000 difference. Treating deep surgical infections cost nearly
$75,000, compared to about $45,000 for treating superficial infec-
tions. Among the 5 highest-volume specialties we studied, infections
after neurosurgery were costliest to treat ($23,755), followed by
orthopedic ($15,243), general ($10,849), peripheral vascular ($7,354)
and urology ($4,842).
Although we found neurosurgery had the highest SSI-related cost of
care, you should obviously consider your case mix. The CDC says 40%
of reported SSIs occur following orthopedic procedures, compared
with roughly 2.5% following neurological surgery, so focusing on pre-
venting infections following orthopedic cases has the most potential
to save.
We're one of the first sites to break down the costs of treating infec-
tions that occur after different types of surgery. It was challenging to
do. Obviously, patients have other underlying issues — including
potential comorbidities such as diabetes and issues related to the sur-
gery — but we included confounding factors into our research model.
That's why our costs are lower, and arguably more accurate, than SSI-
related costs identified in previous research.
Bundled benefits
Staphylococcus aureus was the most common cause of SSI in our
study, and 30% of the population carry the bacteria in the nose without
knowing it. We encourage surgical facilities to swab patients' noses at
I N F E C T I O N C O N T R O L
