Nosocomial Related Deaths

Despite the efforts of Florence Nightingale, Holmes, and Semmelweis to help prevent the spread of deadly infections, 100,000 people in the US die from nosocomial infections annually. Although the rate of acquiring a nosocomial infection has remained stagnant for the past few decades, the rate of nosocomial infections per 1,000 patients has increased over 2% due to shorter inpatient stays. To decrease nosocomial infection rates by 1/3, hospitals and health care facilities would only need to have an effective hospital epidemiologist, one infection control practitioner for every 250 beds, active surveillance mechanisms, and ongoing control efforts. That’s it. To read the rest of the CDC’s findings, visit http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol4no3/weinstein.htm.