Costs of hospital-acquired Clostridium difficile infections: an analysis on the effect of time-dependent exposures using routine and surveillance data.

CDI is associated with sizeable in-hospital costs. Neglecting the methodological particularities of hospital-acquired infections can however substantially bias results. As the data needed for an appropriate analysis are collected routinely in most hospitals, we recommend our approach as a feasible way for estimating the economic impact of time-varying adverse events during hospital stay.