Hospital Acquired Infections: A Costly, Lethal Scourge That We Must Labor to Wash Our Hands Of

If you're admitted to a hospital, the last thing you should need to worry about is developing an infection linked to your care. Sadly, it occurs too often. And consider startling numbers about the consequences: About 1 of every 20 patients gets an infection while hospitalized and up to 98,000 Americans die from these each year. That makes infections the most common complication in hospital care and one of the nation's top 10 causes of death. In California, an estimated 200,000 patients develop hospital infections each year, resulting in 12,000 deaths. The problem is likely even greater than official figures suggest because those numbers fail to account for millions of patients treated in outpatient surgery centers, community clinics, nursing homes and other care facilities.

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