The hidden costs of HAIs

While news headlines and social feeds tell the story of injury and death in Australia from road safety and illnesses such as cancer, COVID and heart disease, a report published by Monash University points to healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) as the fifth leading cause of death in Australia last year.

HAIs, the infections people can get while they are receiving health care for another reason, can occur in any health care facility, including hospitals, ambulances, medical centres and long-term care facilities. According to the research by Monash University published in Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control, an estimated 170,574 adults admitted to public hospitals in Australia contract HAIs each year, resulting in 7,583 deaths.

To put the numbers into perspective, in 2020 there were 1,300 road deaths, 3,144 Australians died from breast cancer — one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in Australia — and 6,500 Australians died from heart attacks.

HAIs are the most common complication affecting patients in hospital, and it is estimated they account for two million hospital bed days in Australia each year. One in ten hospital admissions acquire a HAI during their stay in hospital and even when they don’t lead to serious complications, infections prolong hospital stays and recovery times — stretching healthcare resources and creating needless suffering for patients and their loved ones.

Added to that, effective infection control is only going to become a more pertinent issue due to increasing resistance to antimicrobial drugs. The World Health Organisation declared antimicrobial resistance to be one of the top ten health threats facing humanity.

Fortunately, there is work happening both in Australia and overseas to develop and implement effective infection control practices. One encouraging example is leading Australian researcher Professor Brett Mitchell’s research in preventing HAIs, which recently won the 2022 Commonwealth Health Minister’s Award for Excellence in Health and Medical Research.

The award recognised his work and extensive research in infection control as well as plans to further develop practical approaches to prevent common HAIs and will provide funds to support his current research.

Another potential solution to better protect public health and prevent HAIs is long-lasting antimicrobial coatings, which remain effective even when surfaces are frequently cleaned or touched. These surface coatings form a protective barrier that continuously fights against the recontamination of surfaces, ensuring hygienic spaces and the prevention of avoidable infections, which significantly improve patient outcomes, staff health and wellbeing and healthcare service capacity.

Studies are revealing long-lasting, antimicrobial surface coatings can reduce HAIs by as much as 36 per cent and hospital staff sick leave by 11.2 per cent, leading to a view that antimicrobial coatings are the next step in any healthcare facility’s infection control toolkit.

According to infection control specialist Dr Stephanie Dancer, “It is not impossible that an antimicrobial coating of some type will become standard for all healthcare surfaces one day.”

Healthcare-associated infections are an urgent issue facing the Australian healthcare industry. To help prevent these infections, the healthcare industry needs to be equipped with the right technologies, not only saving patient lives, but creating a safer and better industry for all.

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