Costs and Benefits of Measures to Prevent Needlestick Injuries in a University Hospital

Hospital" by Roudot-Thoraval and colleagues, 1 which appeared in the September 1999 issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.At a time when needlestick-injury prevention is receiving national attention, this article and others like it provide important information to inform policy-making-by both providers and government-on this issue.This cost-effectiveness study reports the effectiveness of measures to reduce the risk of needlestick injury, as did the study we conducted and published in the American Journal of Infection Control in 1994. 2 Dr. Roudot-Thoraval and her colleagues cited our study in their discussion, stating that we calculated cost-effectiveness ratios of between $800 and $1,500 and that these calculations included the costs of seroconversions averted.While we calculated and reported various cost-effectiveness ratios for needlestick-prevention devices we studied, our calculations were based solely on the costs of implementing the use of the devices and did not include the costs of seroconversions averted.However, we discussed the exclusion of these costs from our calculations as additional considerations that could potentially affect the cost-effectiveness of these devices.In fact, because of the magnitude of such costs, implementing the use of these devices might save money, at least from a societal perspective, and possibly save the hospital money if the hospital incurs these costs either directly or indirectly.