One in 25 Patients End Up with Hospital-Acquired Infections

According to a Health Grades Hospital Quality in America Study, the incidence of medical harm occurring in the United States is estimated to be over 40,000 harmful and/or lethal errors each and every day.

Hospitals have become particularly notorious for spreading lethal infections. According to the most recent report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), hospital-acquired infections now affect one in 25 patients.

In 2011, an estimated 722,000 patients contracted an infection during a stay in an acute care hospital in the US, and about 75,000 of them died as a result of it.

That amounts to just over 205 deaths from hospital-acquired infections every day of the year! More than half of all hospital-acquired infections were contracted outside of the intensive care unit. The most common hospital-acquired infections include:

• Central line-associated bloodstream infections
• Catheter-associated urinary tract infections
• Surgical site infections after surgery
• Clostridium difficile infections

For further details see: “Multistate Point-Prevalence Survey of HealthCare–Associated Infections”.

Posted by Tim Sandle