A basic hospital to-do list saves lives

These days, to spend time in the hospital is to be at risk of contracting a hospital-acquired infection. Some of these infections can be life-threatening. But there is a simple way to make that hospital stay safer, devised by Dr. Peter J. Pronovost, a physician-researcher at Johns Hopkins. The method--a five-item checklist to assure that proper precautions are taken to prevent infection--has been thoroughly tested, first at Johns Hopkins and later in 108 intensive-care units in Michigan, saving lives and reducing costs for patients who received the major fluid tube called a central venous catheter.