Dementia More Than Doubles Risk of Hospital-Acquired Complications

Older patients with dementia are 2.5 times more likely to experience one of four common hospital-acquired complications than older patients who do not have dementia. “As a consequence, people with dementia account for nearly one-quarter of the costs of above-average length of stay, despite accounting for only one-tenth of hospital episodes for people aged 50-plus,” researchers reported.

The study investigated risk-adjusted rates of urinary tract infections, pressure sores, pneumonia, and delirium in a sample of 426,276 patients 50 years of age and older in Australia, as well as the costs associated with the hospital-acquired conditions.  

Researchers reported that the four “potentially preventable” hospital-acquired complications were linked to an average of 3.6 extra days in the hospital, costing $16,000 (Australian) on average per patient. In addition, the four complications were associated with 6.4% of the total estimated costs of hospitalization for patients 50 years of age and older, and with nearly 25% of extra costs of longer-than-average stays for the population. Although patients with dementia were at increased risk of complications, the cost of care when complications arose was similar for all older patients regardless of dementia status.

“Duty of care to patients and to taxpayers requires that the risks of acquiring complications while in hospital be mitigated,” the researchers concluded. “It is not clear how responsibility for prevention and mitigation is best shared between hospitals and the state, but research on acute models of aged care, nurse staffing, skill mix, and healthy multidisciplinary work environments have shown promise in prevention of these key hospital-acquired complications.” These results were published in BMC Health Services Research (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25890030).