BackgroundThe economic burden of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) during the index hospitalization has been confirmed in previous studies. However, the long-term economic impact is still unclear. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of VAP on medical utilization in the long term.MethodsThis is a retrospective case-control study. Study subjects were patients experiencing their first traumatic brain injury, acute hemorrhagic stroke, or acute ischemic stroke during 2004. All subjects underwent endotracheal intubation in the emergency room (ER) on the day of admission or the day before admission, were transferred to the intensive care unit (ICU) and were mechanically ventilated for 48 hours or more. A total of 943 patients who developed VAP were included as the case group, and each was matched with two control patients without VAP by age ( ± 2 years), gender, diagnosis, date of admission ( ± 1 month) and hospital size, resulting in a total of 2,802 patients in the study. Using robust regression and Poisson regression models we examined the effect of VAP on medical utilization including hospitalization expenses, outpatient expenses, total medical expenses, number of ER visits, number of readmissions, number of hospitalization days and number of ICU days, during the index hospitalization and during the following 2-year period.ResultsPatients in the VAP group had higher hospitalization expenses, longer length of stay in hospital and in ICU, and a greater number of readmissions than the control group patients.ConclusionsVAP has a significant impact on medical expenses and utilization, both during the index hospitalization during which VAP developed and in the longer term.