1 In Every 25 Hospital Patients Gets an Infection During Their Stay

In 2011, 721,800 patients acquired an infection during their stay at a hospital. Approximately 10% of those patients died. The most common infections were pneumonia and surgical-site infections, accounting for 22% of those recorded.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, the researchers surveyed 183 hospitals across the United States and found that approximately 4% of hospital patients acquire a new infection. This remains an issue for patients' well-being as well as excessive avoidable healthcare costs.

However, these numbers are on the decline despite still remaining a paramount medical problem. In 2002 there were an estimated 1.7 million patient infections, including over 155,000 deaths. This most recent study took place between May and September of 2011, surveying over 11,000 patients, and was the first time all hospital infections were cataloged. It was published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Infection rates and cleanliness vary between states and even neighboring hospitals, and it recommended that research be conducted on the subject of infection rates before checking into a nearby hospital.

The study also suggested ways for hospitals to prevent such infections from happening in order to increase patient safety and drive down unwarranted healthcare costs. For example, cases of pneumonia can be avoided if patients are less frequently exposed to inhaling food particles. Additionally, basic safety precaution checklists must be followed and executed in order to ensure cleanliness of catheters, mechanical ventilators, and/or devices administered into the bloodstream.

"It's sobering to realize that despite all those efforts we still have this level of problem," said Dr. Brad Spellberg of the Harbor UCLA Medical Center, in this NPR article. "If we depend on changing human behavior as the only implementation tool to prevent infections, we're going to plateau."

Dr. Spellberg advocates newer vaccines that target hospital infections. Some infections are hard to monitor, such as bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics, which contributes to nearly 23,000 deaths annually.

To read more about infection-related deaths in hospitals across the U.S., visit this CNN article.