A recent NPR report outlined the steps being taken to reduce hospital infection rates and the difficulty in maintaining any reductions. Noting that the Ebola case in Texas has highlighted issues of hospital infection control, the article notes that 1 in 35 patients get an infection while hospitalized, and an estimated 75,000 people die each year from such infections.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has identified six categories of infections that are difficult to eliminate: those from flexible tubes inserted into veins; infections from ureteral catheters; two antibiotic-resistant organisms, Clostridium difficile and Methicillin-resistant staph aureus (MRSA); and surgical site infections after hysterectomies and colon surgeries.

The (CDC) has very clear guidelines for reducing hospital infections, but as the article points out: “The percentage of time that health care providers do all of the things they are supposed to do when caring for a patient with a contagious disease can be pretty low.” It not only requires a strong educational program for nurses and others, but a commitment from hospital administrators to monitor compliance.

We frequently receive calls from people who wonder if they can sue a hospital after they or a family member acquired a serious infection while hospitalized. Unfortunately, the answer is that it is often very difficult, if not impossible, to identify any specific negligent act that resulted in the infection. Although infection rates vary widely between hospitals, and this is largely based on adherence or failure to adhere to strict control measures, that does not tend to prove that any particular provider in the hospital did something wrong that resulted in a particular patient’s infection.

Occasionally, there will be an outbreak of a specific kind of infection in the same wing of the hospital or even a specific operating room, and investigation can uncover problems with the ventilation equipment or machines that sanitize instruments, but those instances are rare.