The cost of resistance: incremental cost of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in German hospitals.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a significant problem in many healthcare systems. In Germany, few data are available on its economic consequences and, so far, no study has been performed using a large sample of real-life data from several hospitals. We present a retrospective matched-pairs analysis of mortality, length of stay, and cost of MRSA patients based mainly on routine administrative data from 11 German hospitals. Our results show that MRSA patients stay in hospital 11 days longer, exhibit 7% higher mortality, are 7% more likely to undergo mechanical ventilation, and cause significantly higher total costs (<euro> 8,198).