I read with major interest the In Our Unit article in the February issue of Critical Care Nurse, “Central Catheter Infections: Use of a Multidisciplinary Team to Find Simple Solutions,” by Marian Racco and Kathleen Horn. As recently stated by the Centers for Disease Control, infections related to central catheters are among the most preventable nosocomial infections.1 Measures to control the rising incidence of this dreaded complication are frequently associated with significant hospital costs. However, as successfully demonstrated by Racco and Horn, low-tech and low-cost interventions such as educating and reinforcing intensive care unit staff to comply with current guidelines can significantly reduce hospital expenditures (approximate cost of $40000 per infection or $240000 per year), and more importantly save lives.

In Belgium, in an effort to keep medical care payable, cost matters in medicine are becoming a key issue for the federal government, insurance institutions, hospitals, and patients. Consequently,...

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