ORIGINAL ARTICLE Cost assessment of a new oral care program in the intensive care unit to prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia Jérôme Ory 1 & Charline Mourgues 2 & Evelyne Raybaud 1 & Russell Chabanne 3,4 & Jean Christophe Jourdy 5 & Fabien Belard 5 & Renaud Guérin 6 & Bernard Cosserant 7 & Jean Sébastien Faure 4 & Laure Calvet 8 & Bruno Pereira 2 & Dominique Guelon 4 & Ousmane Traore 1 & Laurent Gerbaud 9 Received: 14 January 2017 /Accepted: 21 November 2017 /Published online: 30 November 2017 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2017 Abstract Objectives Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is the most frequent hospital-acquired infections in intensive care units (ICU). In the bundle of care to prevent the VAP, the oral care is very important strategies, to decrease the oropharyngeal bacterial colonization and presence of causative bacteria of VAP. In view of the paucity of medical economics studies, our objective was to determine the cost of implementing this oral care program for preventing VAP. Materials and methods In five ICUs, during period 1, caregivers used a foam stick for oral care and, during period 2, a stick and tooth brushing with aspiration. Budgetary effect of the new program from the hospital’ s point of view was analyzed for both periods. The costs avoided were calculated from the incidence density of VAP (cases per 1000 days of intubation). The cost study included device cost, benefit lost, and ICU cost (medication, employer and employee contributions, blood sample analysis…). Results A total of 2030 intubated patients admitted to the ICUs benefited from oral care. The cost of implementing the study protocol was estimated to be €11,500 per year. VAP rates decreased significantly between the two periods (p1 = 12.8% and p2 = 8.5%, p = 0.002). The VAP revenue was ranged from €28,000 to €45,000 and the average cost from €39,906 to €42,332. The total cost assessment calculated was thus around €1.9 million in favor of the new oral care program. Conclusion and clinical relevance Our study showed that the implementation of a simple strategy improved the quality of patient care is economically viable. Trial registration NCT02400294 Keywords Care program . Cost assessment . Low cost . Oral care . Ventilator-associated pneumonia Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00784-017-2289-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Jérôme Ory jerome.ory@hotmail.fr 1 Hygiène Hospitalière, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Clermont-Ferrand, 58 Rue Montalembert, Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne Rhône-Alpes, France 2 Direction Recherche Clinique Innovation, CHU Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont-Ferrand, France 3 Réanimation Neurochirurgicale, CHU Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont-Ferrand, France 4 Réanimation Médico-Chirurgicale, CHU Gabriel Montpied, Clermont-Ferrand, France Clinical Oral Investigations (2018) 22:1945–1951 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00784-017-2289-6 5 Département de l’Information Médicale, CHU Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont-Ferrand, France 6 Réanimation Médico-Chirurgicale Estaing, CHU Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont-Ferrand, France 7 Réanimation Cardio Vasculaire, CHU Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont-Ferrand, France 8 Réanimation Médicale, CHU Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont-Ferrand, France 9 Santé Publique, CHU Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont-Ferrand, France