A new study by Columbia University School of Nursing about hospital infection prevention policies has revealed some disturbing results – most hospitals fail to follow their own policies. The price of these infections is high, costing $33 billion annually for excess medical care and killing 100,000 people in this country every year.

Researchers studied the prevention policies of over 1600 intensive care units (ICU) at almost 1,000 hospitals located across the U.S. The team was especially interested in what kind of checklists were in place to prevent central line-associated bloodstream infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia and catheter-associated urinary tract infections.

Of all the ICUs studied, one in 10 still did not have any kind of checklist in place to help deter bloodstream infections. The study also found that one in four ICUs had no checklists to help prevent patients developing pneumonia while on a ventilator.

For those units that did have checklists in place, these safeguards were only followed half the time.

Past research has shown that the use of electronic monitoring systems and staff that are trained and have infection control certification can significantly reduce the occurrence of these infections. But only one-third of the hospitals actually had some type of electronic monitoring system in place. And more than one-third of the hospitals studied had no staff trained in infection control.

The research was led by Dr. Patricia Stone, who has been involved in considerable research about hospital and health-care infections. In a statement, Dr. Stone said, “Hospitals aren’t following the rules they put in place themselves to keep patients safe. Rules don’t keep patients from dying unless they’re enforced.”

Dr. Stone also added, “Every hospital should see this research as a call to action – it’s just unconscionable that we’re not doing every single thing we can, every day, for every patient, to avoid preventable infections.”

If you have suffered from complications caused by negligent medical care, contact a Westport medical malpractice attorney to find out what compensation you may be entitled to for pain and loss.