Report: Infections hurt patients, providers

Hospital-acquired infections may be a far more serious problem than had been initially thought, according to a report released this week by a Pennsylvania research group. The study looks at data collected from Pennsylvania hospitals since 2004, when a new reporting law went into effect that requires hospitals to report four common types of infection. Researchers found that patients who developed infections cost the health system on average seven times as much as other patients. The report concludes that hospital-acquired infections cost at least $614 million last year alone. The group behind the report, the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4), goes before Congress today to present its findings.

- read this Washington Post article
- see this release from PHC4