OBJECTIVE To observe the impact of hospital-associated infections (HAIs) on length of hospital stay and medical costs of the patients with 10 single diseases included in the Performance Assessment of Tertiary Public Hospitals in China (referred to as the National Assessment) and evaluate the significance of infection control in the 'National Assessment'.

METHODS The data were collected from the patients with 10 single diseases covered by the National Assessment who were treated in The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from Jan. 2022 to Dec. 2022. The incidence of HAIs and the infection sites of the patients with the single diseases were analyzed. Multivariate analysis was performed for the assessment of impact of the HAIs on the length of hospital stay and medical costs.

RESULTS Among the patients with the single diseases, the incidence of HAIs was the highest (12.41%) in the patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), followed by adult pneumonia (4.70%) and heart failure (2.25%). There was gathering of infection sites among the patients with the different single diseases: lower respiratory tract was the major infection site among the patients undergoing CABG, and the urinary tract was the major infection site among the patients undergoing hip replacement. Ther result of multivariate analysis showed that the HAIs could extend the length of hospital stay of the patients with all the single diseases except for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and adult pneumonia (P < 0.05); the lengths of hospital stay of the patients undergoing hip replacement (with the increase of 22.05 days), the patients with heart failure (with the increase of 18.39 days) and those with myocardial infarction (with the increase of 17.15 days) increased most remarkably. The medical costs of the patients with CABG, COPD, hip replacement, cerebral infarction, myocardial infarction and heart failure were increased due to the HAIs (P < 0.05), and the medical costs of the patients with heart failure increased most remarkably (with the increase of 251, 662.92 yuan).

CONCLUSIONS The HAIs have remarkable negative effects on the length of hospital stay and medical costs of most of the patients with single diseases. It is necessary to strengthen the prevention and control of HAIs so as to improve the medical quality, guarantee the safety of patients, effectively improve the performance assessment indexes for tertiary public hospitals and facilitate the high-quality development of medical institutions.