The SHEA Board of Directors appointed a task force to draft this evidence‐based guideline to assist hospital epidemiologists in justifying and expanding their programs. Part 1 describes the basic steps needed to complete a business‐case analysis for an individual institution. A case study based on a representative infection control intervention is provided. Part 2 reviews important basic economic concepts and describes approaches that can be used to assess the financial impact of infection prevention, surveillance, and control interventions, as well as the attributable costs of specific healthcare‐associated infections. Both parts of the guideline aim to provide the hospital epidemiologist, infection control professional, administrator, and researcher with the tools necessary to complete a thorough business‐case analysis and to undertake an outcome study of a nosocomial infection or an infection control intervention.
Authors: Eli N. Perencevich, Patricia W. Stone, Sharon B. Wright, Yehuda Carmeli, David N. Fisman, and Sara E. Cosgrove
