Hospitals' hand washing strategies effective in reducing patient infection rates

A bacterial infection in 2010 that spread from the room of one patient to another served as the impetus of an intensive hand-washing program at MetroHealth Medical Center. Less than four years later, hospital officials are taking pride in the reduction of hospital-acquired infections. On any given day, 1 in 25 hospital patients has at least one infection they got from being in a health care setting, according to data from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey published earlier this year in the New England Journal of Medicine. The most effective way for hospitals to combat HAIs (also referred to as healthcare associated infections) is to stop them in their tracks before they start.