Xin Zhang,1 Zhenwu Gao,2 Yanbin Niu,1 Ruixia Hao,1 RongQian Zhang,1 Yanqing Duan1 

1Department of Operating Room, Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Academy of Medical Sciences, Third Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Tongji Shanxi Hospital, Taiyuan, Shanxi, 030032, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Orthopedics, Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Academy of Medical Sciences, Third Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Tongji Shanxi Hospital, Taiyuan, Shanxi, 030032, People’s Republic of China

Correspondence: Yanqing Duan, Department of Operating Room, Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Academy of Medical Sciences, Third Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Tongji Shanxi Hospital, No. 99, Longcheng Street, Xiaodian District, Taiyuan, Shanxi, 030032, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 13466800617, Email duanyq2025yq@163.com

Objective: To analyse the economic burden of ophthalmic surgery-related nosocomial infections under the diagnosis-related group (DRG) model payment mode and optimise prevention and control strategies.
Methods: Retrospective analysis was used to analyse the hospitalisation days and expenses of patients with nosocomial infection after cataract surgery in our hospital in 2020 and 2021 and compared with patients without infection in the same group of DRGs in the same period.
Results: In terms of hospitalisation days and expenses, the average hospitalisation time and average hospitalisation expenses of the infection group in 2020 were higher than those of the non-infection group. In 2021, the average hospitalisation time and the average hospitalisation expenses in the infected group were also higher than those in the non-infected group. The results of the root cause analysis showed that there were many issues in the infection-after-cataract-surgery group in the hospital related to hand hygiene and environmental cleaning and disinfection. Targeted improvement programmes were formulated accordingly, including attaching great importance to the prevention and control of infection after cataract surgery and implementing the full infection prevention and control training system. The adenosine triphosphate fluorescence detection and video surveillance methods were used to monitor the hand hygiene status of medical staff.
Conclusion: Diagnosis-related grouping puts forward higher requirements for both hospital costs and quality management. Hospital infection after cataract surgery can significantly affect treatment quality, increase medical costs and increase the economic burden of patients.

Keywords: diagnosis-related group, cataract surgery, nosocomial infection, economic burden, root cause analysis