Preventing Infections In The Hospital

Preventing Infections In The Hospital.
Elderly folk who develop infections while in an intensified care unit are at increased risk of dying within five years after their hospital stay, a imaginative study finds. "Any death from preventable infections is one too many," study older author Patricia Stone, director of the Center for Health Policy at Columbia University School of Nursing, said in a university word release. Researchers analyzed data from more than 17500 Medicare patients admitted to focused care units (ICUs) in 2002 and found that those who developed an infection while in the ICU were 35 percent more acceptable to die within five years after hospital discharge.

Overall, almost 60 percent of the patients died within five years. However, the annihilation rate was 75 percent for those who developed bloodstream infections due to an intravenous threshold placed in a large vein (central line). And, the expiry rate was 77 percent for those who developed ventilator-associated pneumonia while in the ICU, according to the researchers. Central path infections and ventilator-associated pneumonia are among the most common types of health care-acquired infections, the analyse authors noted.