A new study proves false the conventional assumption that hospitals make more money on patients who fall ill with hospital-acquired infections. As it turns out, the higher payments do not cover the additional costs.
They study showed an average $26,839 loss for each patient who came down with "central-line-associated" bloodstream infection. A central line is a catheter placed into a vein to provide medication.
Hospital-acquired infections affect roughly 2 million patients each year, and approximately 100,000 die from them.
Recent studies have also shown that such infections are not a normal side-effect of caring for the seriously ill, but are generally caused by poor medical care.