Stopping Infections ; Simple Screening Saves Lives, Cuts Costs

Summary

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NO ONE expects a hospital to be a source of illness, but almost 2 million people in the United States contract infections each year while hospitalized, and almost 100,000 of them die. Even more frightening, many of the infections don't respond to common antibiotics.

States are slowly realizing they must insist that hospitals begin rigorous screening and infection-control programs to find and isolate patients with a particularly dangerous strain of staph bacteria known as MRSA. Last week, New Jersey became the 25th state to require reporting of MRSA cases and only the second state to require hospitals to screen all intensive-care patients for MRSA.

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Extract

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Stopping Infections ; Simple Screening Saves Lives, Cuts Costs

Sponsors of the bill signed by Governor Corzine included state Sen. Barbara Buono, D-Middlese...

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