Measuring the economic costs of antimicrobial resistance in hospital settings: Summary of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Emory workshop

Health systems administrators and clinicians need refined calculations of t he attributable cost of infections due to drug-resistant microorganisms to develop and assess cost-effective prevention strategies that deal with thes e infections. To date, however, efforts to provide this information have yi elded widely variable and often conflicting estimates. This lack of reprodu cibility is largely attributable to problems in study design and in the met hods used to identify and measure costs. Addressing these methodological is sues was the focus of a workshop that included participants from a broad ra nge of backgrounds, including economics, epidemiology, health care manageme nt, health care outcomes research, and clinical care. This workshop summary presents the advantages and disadvantages of various research designs as w ell as particular methodological issues related to the measurement of the e conomic cost of resistance in health care settings. Suggestions are made fo r needed common definitions and approaches, study areas for future research are considered, and priority investigations are identified.