Authors: Sammy Saab Theodore Alper Ernesto Sernas Paridhima Pruthi Mikhail A Alper Vinay Sundaram
Publish Date: 2015/05/19
Volume: 60, Issue: 10, Pages: 3124-3129
Abstract
A Markov model was used to compare costs and outcomes of two strategies for the screening of CDI The first strategy consisted of screening all patients for CDI and treating if detected screening In the second strategy only patients found to have symptomatic CDI were treated no screening The probability of underlying CDI prevalence symptomatic CDI infection and likelihood of recurrent infection were varied in a sensitivity analysis The costs of antibiotics and hospitalization were also assessed Differences in outcome were expressed in ratio of the total costs associated with screening to the total costs associated without screeningThe results of our model showed that screening for CDI was consistently associated with improved healthcare outcomes and decreased healthcare utilization across all variables in the one and twoway sensitivity analyses Using baseline assumptions the costs associated with the no screening strategy were 354 times that of the screening strategy Moreover the mortality for symptomatic CDI was lower in the screening strategy than the no screening strategy
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