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An estimated 48,000 people died in 2006 after developing sepsis or pneumonia during their hospital stays, according to a study published in this week's edition of Archives of Internal Medicine. Such infections forced patients to spend an extra 2.3 million days in the hospital and cost $8.1 billion to treat, the study found. This was reported in the health care blog of theL.A. Times. From the article:

?These figures are likely to be underestimates because they focus on infections that were acquired and diagnosed during the same hospitalization, although many [hospital acquired infections], including most surgical site infections, are not diagnosed until after hospital discharge.?

If that?s not scary enough, study co-author Anup Malani from the University of Chicago Law School had this to say in a news release: ?In some cases, relatively healthy people check into the hospital for routine surgery. They develop sepsis because of a lapse in infection control ? and they can die.?

He added that the nation?s hospitals need to find a better way to reduce the risk of infections. Let?s hope the nation?s hospitals are listening.

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