Pressure is on hospitals to stamp out bacterial bugs

The story here says it all...BD

Physicians, safety advocates and government officials are mobilizing to prevent the infections that have stricken an increasing number of hospital patients over the past three decades.

According to a 2003 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the number of catheter-associated bloodstream infections in hospitals has nearly tripled since 1975. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that about 80,000 such infections in intensive-care units occur in the USA each year.

The most common contaminant is coagulase-negative staphylococci, bacteria often found in the skin and mucous membranes, the CDC says. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement reports these infections are so serious that 20% of patients who contract them will die.

"Here was a man who had waited on the transplant list for two years in hopes of getting a new heart, only to have the whole thing snatched away by a central line infection," says Shannon, who now heads the Department of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center.

Pressure is on hospitals to stamp out bacterial bugs - USATODAY.com