Introduction:

The cost analysis of infections associated with health care represents a challenge for the health system in Colombia given their determinants.

Objective:

To determine the factors related to the increase and variability in the costs of hospital care for infections associated with health care in a fourth-level hospital in Bogotá from 2011 to 2015.

Materials and methods:

The costs of the care for 292 patients were analyzed including each of the activities carried out since the suspicion of the infectious disease until its resolution. These costs were standardized to the value of the Instituto de Seguros Sociales tariff manual adjusted by the annual consumer price index for health until 2014. The factors related to the increase in management costs were identified using a conditional logistic regression model.

Results:

A hospital stay of nine days or more prior to the infection was a factor associated with the increase of direct costs in the management of infections associated with health care (OR=2.06; 95% CI: 1.11-3.63). The median cost of the infections was COP $1.190.879. The antibiotic treatment represented 41% of the total value of the treatment, followed by laboratory tests with a cost equivalent to 13.5%.

Conclusions:

We found a relationship between the cost of the management of infections associated with health care and the hospital stay prior to their appearance. The pathological antecedents of the patients were not related to the increase in the cost.

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