Healthcare-acquired infections (HAI) are so common that in 2013, the U.S Department of Health and Human Services made reducing the number of hospital-acquired infections a major goal. These infections have been estimated to be responsible for patients staying an average of 17.6 days more than they ought to, costing patients an extra $1,100 on average in medical costs.
But unfortunately, it doesn’t just stop there. A 2007 National Institute of Health report estimates that there were 1.7 million healthcare-acquired infections in 2002 which were linked to nearly 99,000 deaths in that year. Data released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that about 722,000 people were infected in acute care hospitals in 2011, contributing to about 75,000 deaths in the same year.
