Outpatient bloodstream infections costly for pediatric transplant and cancer patients
Monday, August 29, 2016 - 14:31
in Health & Medicine
Pediatric stem cell transplant and cancer patients often are discharged from the hospital with an external central venous line for medications that parents or other caregivers must clean and flush daily to avoid potentially life-threatening infections. If an outpatient develops a bloodstream infection associated with the central line, median charges to treat it total $37,000 for a six-day hospital stay for young patients whose disease treatments have weakened their immune systems and infection-fighting abilities.