MRSA hospital bacteria costs municipalities millions of euros

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MRSA hospital bacteria outbreaks are proving to be a be a heavy burden on the Finnish health care system.
      An increase in infections with the antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus bacteria has forced hospitals to isolate patients, suspend surgery, and to hire more personnel. With the total extra cost estimated in the tens of millions of euros, the MRSA epidemic has imposed a serious economic burden, especially on small municipalities.
      On the positive side, the efforts appear to be paying off.
     
The South Karelian city of Joutseno, with less than 11,000 residents, will have to hire ten more nurses next year when a new MRSA ward is set up in a service centre for the elderly.
      Pekka Keränen, the city’s head physician, says that the investment is very high, but that it would be even more expensive if the infection were to spread further.
      Health officials hope to prevent a situation in which MRSA becomes as prevalent in Finland as it is in a number of other countries, including the UK and the USA.
      "It would seem to be that prevention is cheaper", says Jukka Lumio, a specialist in infectious diseases at the Tampere University Central Hospital.
     
Worst hit by the bacteria have been the health care districts of Helsinki and Uusimaa, North Ostrobothnia, and Pirkanmaa. In Tampere, the establishment of an MRSA ward is under consideration in two hospitals and at one home for the elderly.
      Ville Valtonen, head physician of the Clinic of Infectious Diseases at the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS) says that according to cautious estimates, MRSA has cost more than EUR 10 million a year in the Uusimaa region.
      "This does not take into account the suffering and premature deaths among patients", Valtonen adds.
      More than 60 new positions were set up at HUS last year to fight MRSA. Valtonen feels that it was a good investment, because the epidemic in the hospitals of the Helsinki region has been brought under control; in recent months, the MRSA infection rate has been only one third of that in the previous years.
     
The government has granted EUR 2.2 million extra in state funds for fighting MRSA. The money has been spent mainly in hiring new employees to fight bacterial epidemics.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Homes for the elderly shun patients with MRSA bacteria (10.2.2005)
  Helsinki hospitals hit by MRSA epidemic (24.8.2004)
  MRSA bacteria continue to spread in Helsinki hospitals (12.11.2003)
  Serious hospital infections continue to spread in Finland; situation better than in many other European countries (14.10.2002)

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