Building single-patient rooms in intensive care units is a costly endeavor, but it more than makes up its steep pricetag by preventing hospital-acquired infections, a new study has concluded. According to the study published in the Journal of Critical Care, building such private rooms resulted in a more than 56 percent overall rate of return, more than justifying the cost of their construction. "You have to spend additional money to treat the patients that acquired infection, as it would increase their hospital stay, and to contain the sickness--powerful cleaning supplies, support services," said study co-author Hessam Sadatsafavi, Ph.D., of Cornell University. "Single-patient ICU rooms reduce the cross-transmission rate and avoid extra medical costs to contain infection, and our research showed that these savings offsets capital costs." Read the full article at FierceHealthcare