Hospital Infections Kill More Than Cars, AIDS, Breast Cancer
A new report released by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council pointed to the high cost of (hospital) infections in both dollars and lives. The report - the first of its kind in the nation - identified the actual number of infections reported by Pennsylvania's 168 hospitals, as well as other related quality-of-care measures, in 2005. The hospitals studied reported 19,154 cases in which patients contracted hospital-acquired infections. The hospitalizations resulting from these infections amounted to 394,129 hospital days and $3.5 billion in hospital charges.