Surveillance of healthcare-acquired infections in Queensland, Australia: data and lessons from the first 5 years.

Objective: To present healthcare-acquired infection surveillance data for 2001-2005 in Queensland, Australia.

Design: Observational prospective cohort study.

Setting: Twenty-three public hospitals in Queensland.

Effect of healthcare-acquired infection on length of hospital stay and cost.

Objective: To estimate the independent effect of a single lower respiratory tract infection, urinary tract infection, or other healthcare-acquired infection on length-of-stay and variable costs and to demonstrate the bias from omitted variables that is present in previous estimates.

Design: Prospective cohort study.Setting.

Costs of surgical site infections that appear after hospital discharge.

Data were collected from surgical patients in the hospital and on 4 occasions postdischarge. The incidence of postdischarge surgical site infection was 8.46%.