Economics and Preventing Healthcare Acquired Infection

The 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.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:Ground the reader in the basic principles and language of economics.Explain the role of health economists in general and in terms of infection prevention and control.Introduce the concept of economic appraisal, showing how to frame the problem, evaluate and use data, and account for uncertainty.Review methods of estimating and interpreting the costs and health benefits of HAI control programs and prevention methods. Walk the reader through a published economic appraisal of an infection reduction program.Identify current and emerging applications of economics in infection control.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.

Nicholas Graves is a Senior Research Fellow in Health Economics at the School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology. He is also a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Australia.William Jarvis is a well-known figure in infection control. He was formerly Chief of the Epidemiology Branch at the CDC, as well as Director of the Hospital Infections Program at the CDC. He is a past President of The Society for Healthcare Epidemiologists of America (SHEA), and is currently Vice-President of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control (APIC).