Nosocomial infections create an extra burden to the health care system because the costs of treating infections are added to those of the original medical problem, or surgical procedure that resulted in the initial hospitalization.

 Nosocomial infections needlessly prolong hospitals stays and substantially increase the number of medical exams. Their treatment is very expensive. Moreover, when hospital stays are prolonged by infection, the number of hospital beds available is reduced. The net result is that health care resources are wasted treating problems that could easily be avoided. This is particularly serious when one considers that health care costs in Quebec and elsewhere are exploding, and health care budgets are being stretched to the breaking point.

The cost of N.I’s to Quebec is difficult to establish for the following reasons:

Lack of reliable data on the actual number of nosocomial infections. Only cases of C. difficile have been reported, and this has been done only since August 2000.

The structure of hospital budgets does not take specifically include costs related to the prevention and treatment of N.I.’s

A Canadian study carried out in 2001 for the medical journal “Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology” listed the additional costs related to the treatment of each SARM infected patient:

Colonized patient - $1,369

 Infected Patient - $14,360

 Blood infection - $28,000

There are approximately 4,200 to 7,200 new cases per year.

 In the August 4^th, 2004 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, it was estimated that a single case of C.difficile cost the health care system between $10,000 and $12,000. This means that between 140 million dollars and 168 million dollars was required to treat the 14,000 cases reported from 2003 to 2005.