Statistics on Hospital Acquired Infections being the 4th leading cause of death.

	Each year in the United States an estimated 2 million hospitalized people acquire infections that result in more than 90,000 deaths.” A Chicago tribune investigation revealed: Deaths linked to hospital infections represent the fourth leading cause of mortality among Americans behind heart disease, cancer and strokes. These infections kill more people each year than car accidents, fires and drowning combined.
	In 2002, a Chicago Tribune article stated that the CDC estimate of deaths from hospital-acquired infections was low. The article said that 103,000 deaths occur annually from hospital-acquired infections, and that 75% of them are preventable. "Infection rates are soaring nationally, exacerbated by hospital cutbacks and carelessness by doctors and nurses, and serious violations of infection-control standards have been found in the majority of hospitals." The newspaper noted a 1998 case in which eight children died at a Chicago pediatric medical center; a 1997 Detroit case in which four babies died in 1997; and an infection at a West Palm Beach, Fla., hospital where 13 cardiac patients died in the late 1990s.
	The Institute of Medicine reports that preventable adverse patient events, including hospital-acquired infections, are responsible for 44,000-98,000 deaths annually at a cost of $17-$29 billion.