Fewer patients pick up infection in some North Carolina hospitals

Although specific infection rates are not publicly reported in North Carolina, many Triangle health system hospitals say they have seen serious infections fall by at least half in recent years. The improvement has come from low-tech solutions such as improving hand washing before and after contact with patients, and from following proven infection control practices more consistently. The hospitals took a fresh look at infection control after the national Institute of Medicine published the landmark 1999 report, which found that up to 98,000 patients die each year because of preventable medical errors--including preventable infections.