Informational site addresses hospital-acquired infections

HAIWatch.com is a website devoted to providing information about health-care acquired infections, which can be very serious due to the super-bacteria that they often involve.  Here’s an excerpt from the site:

When someone develops an infection at a hospital or other patient carefacility that they did not have prior to treatment, this is referred toas a healthcare-associated (sometimes hospital-acquired) infection (HAI).Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are a global crisis affecting both patients and healthcare workers.  According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at any point in time,1.4 million people worldwide suffer from infections acquired inhospitals.  A Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report published in March-April2007 estimated the number of U.S. deaths from healthcare associatedinfections in 2002 at 98,987.  The risk of acquiring healthcare-associated infections in developing countries is 2-20 times higher than in developed countries.  Afflicting thousands of patients every year, HAIoften leads to lengthening hospitalization, increasing the likelihoodof readmission, and adding sizably to the cost of care per patient.  Financially,HAIs represent an estimated annual impact of $6.7 billion to healthcarefacilities, but the human cost is even higher.  Until recently, a lack of HAI reporting requirements for healthcarefacilities has contributed to less-than-optimal emphasis being placedon eliminating the sources of healthcare associated infections.However, growing public anxiety regarding the issue and resultinglegislation on state and local levels demanding accountability isserving to accelerate initiatives to combat HAIs.

To learn more about the impact of healthcare-associated infections for both medical professionals and patients, please visit www.haiwatch.com“

This site is sponsored by Kimberly-Clark.