Association Between Length of Stay and Healthcare-Associated Infections among Inpatients in a Secondary Health Care Hospital

Introduction: Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are a major health problem issue in patients during the care process after hospital admission globally. The present study aimed to determine the length of stay related to HAIs among inpatients in the Bangkok Metropolitan- Administration Latkrabang (BMAL) Hospital from January 1, 2015-December 31, 2020. Methods: A hospital-based case-control study was conducted among inpatients of a secondary health care hospital in Bangkok. The data recording form was used to gather information from 300 medical records of inpatients who were hospitalized between 2015 and 2020 including 100 cases and 200 controls. Analysis was conducted using conditional logistic regression. Results: Hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) was the most frequently encountered site of HAI (42.4%), followed by catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) (20.8%). Conditional logistic regression showed that a length of stay of 8 - 14 days, 15 - 21 days, and > 21 days were 3.56, 10.70 and 22.33 times at risk of HAIs compared with those of ≤ 7 days, respectively. Most of the bacteria were collected from sepsis/bloodstream infections of the cases, dominated by Acinetobacter baumannii (28.7%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (19.5%). Conclusion: The result from this study can be used as a basic guideline for improving the clinical practice guideline and the policy of infectious prevention and control for patient safety.