Cost of antimicrobial treatment for nosocomial infections based on a French prevalence survey

An estimate of the antibiotic cost of nosocomial infections (NI) was made i n a university hospital group based on data collected in adult inpatients e nrolled in the French national prevalence survey in 1996. Among the 6839 st udy patients, 636 (9.3%) presented with at least one NI, of these, data on antimicrobial treatment were available for 480. The overall daily antibioti c cost was estimated between FF 49 439 and 103 526, resulting in FF 103 to 216 per infected patient. The most expensive antibiotic treatment was presc ribed in intensive care patients, for pneumonia for device-related NI, or f or multi-resistant bacterial infections. Non-documented NI represented abou t 20% of the overall antibiotic cost. Betalactam antibiotics, especially th ird generation cephalosporins, and parenteral fluoroquinolones were the mos t expensive antimicrobial drugs. The cost of antibiotic treatment for NI re presents a significant part of hospital expenditure that should be reduced by better control of highly expensive prescriptions.