Skip to main content

Canada has a very high rate of health care acquired infections: WHO report

A new World Health Organization (WHO) study (Report on the Burden of Endemic Health Care Associated Infection Worldwide: Clean Care is Safer Care)  indicates that Canada has a high rate of Health Care Acquired Infections (HCAIs) compared to other developed countries.  


The study reports that Canada’s HAI incidence is 11.6%. Of the world’s economically advanced economies, only New Zealand reported a higher rate at 12%. (Notably, New Zealand also has very few hospital beds per capita.)  While Canada has a rate of 11.6% the HCAI prevalence in high income countries is 7.6%:

 

“According to published national or multicentre studies, pooled HCAI prevalence in mixed patient populations was 7.6% in high-income countries ...The estimated HCAI incidence rate in the USA was 4.5% in 2002, corresponding to 9 3 infections per 1000 patient-days and 1 7 million affected patients”

 

The Canadian rate is more than 50% higher than the rate reported for high income countries.  


While HCAI rates in developing countries are often higher than in Canada, some such countries have reported rates lower than Canada: Indonesia, Cuba, Latvia, Lithuania, Iran, Thailand, Lebanon, and Mongolia. 


The study underlines the large impact of HCAIs:

 

“In Europe, HCAIs cause 16 million extra-days of hospital stay, 37 000 attributable deaths, and contribute to an additional 110,000 every year  Annual financial losses are estimated at approximately € 7 billion, including direct costs only.  In the USA, approximately 99 000 deaths were attributed to HCAI in 2002 and the annual economic impact was estimated at approximately US$ 6.5 billion in 2004....

WHO reports that the incidence of HCAIs is especially associated with treatment in intensive care units: “In high-income countries, approximately 30% of ICU patients are affected by at least one episode of HCAI.”

The WHO study notes that HCAIs can be prevented:

“Robust evidence exists that HCAI can be prevented and the burden reduced by as much as 50% or more.  Solid recommendations have been issued by national and international organizations, but their application needs to be strengthened and accompanied by performance monitoring both in high-income and low- and middle income countries  HCAI must be treated as a priority patient safety issue within comprehensive approaches to be tackled effectively.”

The study suggests that HCAIs are the most common cause of death for residents in long term care facilities (as well as the most common reason for LTC residents to b e admitted to a hospital):

Several projects on infection control in long-term care facilities have been initiated in Europe over the last five years.  Accumulated evidence suggests that any resident living in these facilities develops one to three infections per year on average, most frequently urinary tract infection (UTI) and pneumonia  It was also demonstrated that the onset of infection represents the most common cause of hospital admission and death for residents in long-term care facilities, mainly from pneumonia.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Too many public sector workers in Ontario?

Opponents of public services often try to portray the public sector as having grown disproportionately.  In fact, since 1976, the number of public sector employees has not quite kept pace with the population. In 1976, the number of public sector employees in Ontario  as reported by Statistics Canada averaged 830,800.  By 2012, the number had increased to 1,330,700 -- a 60.2% increase.  That sounds like significant growth -- true. But the population has increased  from 8,413,779 in 1976 to 13,505,900 in 2012, a 60.5% increase.   In other words, population growth has run slightly ahead of the growth in public sector employment.     In 1976, close to 10% of the population worked in the public sector.  It stayed pretty much this way until the Mike Harris government came to power when it dipped below 9%.  It returned close to the historical range in the last six years or so, declining in 2012 to below the 1976 averag...
16 comments
Read more

Ford government fails to respond to 72% increase in COVID inpatient days, deepening the capacity crisis

COVID infections continue to drive up hospital costs and inpatient hospitalizations in Ontario. For the most recent fiscal year (April 1, 2022- March 31, 2023) hospital stays related to COVID cost $1.221 billion, according to new CIHI data.   This is about 4% of total hospital spending, creating a very significant new cost pressure beyond the usual pressures of population growth, aging, inflation, and rising utilization.   Costs for COVID related hospitalizations increased 22.2% in Ontario in 2022/23 from the previous fiscal year, rising from $999 million to $1.221 billion.  That rise is particularly notable as the OMICRON spike of late 2021 and early 2022 had passed by the the 2022/23 fiscal year.   The $222 million increase in COVID hospitalization costs came in the same year as the Ford government cut special COVID funding and, in fact, cut total hospital funding by $156 million.     In total, there were 60,653 COVID hospitalizations...
Post a Comment
Read more

The hospital crisis: No capacity, no plan, no end

While Canada has achieved universal public healthcare coverage, that does not mean conservative forces have given up trying to erode that coverage and expand corporate care where it does not currently exist. The battle has become particularly intense in Ontario under the Ford Progressive Conservative government, which is implementing serious cuts to the level of care and moving to bring in for-profit mini-hospitals. Inadequate Staffing.   Less and less of hospital spending is on staff.   Employee compensation as a share of hospital expenditures has consistently shrunk in Ontario. This is not some immutable law of hospital development.  It is in stark contrast with the rest of Canada, where compensation has become a larger share and now accounts for 67.1%. Hospitals in provinces other than Ontario now have 18 percent more staff per capita than hospitals in Ontario. Overall, if Ontario had the same staffing capacity as the other provinces and territories, there would be another...
Post a Comment
Read more