Study: Many hospitals use too many antibiotics

Doctors in many U.S. hospitals are unnecessarily prescribing multiple antibiotics for several days when just one would do the job, a new study released Wednesday suggests. Health officials have sounded alarms that overuse of antibiotics is helping to breed dangerous bacteria that are increasingly resistant to treatment. Much of the attention has been on doctor offices that wrongly prescribe bacteria-targeting antibiotics for illnesses caused by viruses. The new study focuses on a different issue — when hospital doctors throw more than one antibiotic at a mystery infection. Faced with a feverish and deteriorating patient entering the hospital, doctors will at first prescribe a couple of antibiotics.