Human-Body-Facts-2-copy.jpg from todayifoundout.com. 50 Reasons Why The World Is Ending On October 21, 2011: Pics, Videos, Links,... Infographic of the Day: Is Bottled Water Really That Bad? Yes. How Bad Are Hospital Acquired Infections in America? - Megan McArdle - Life... Yesterday, I saw this graphic linked by Kevin Drum, purporting to show that the US hospitals are killing their patients in horrifying numbers: The thing set off huge alarm bells. Not because I think that it's impossible that US hospitals are dropping the ball on hospital acquired infections--indeed, my column next month, which is already at the printers, will be on antibiotic resistance.
And hospital procedures like hand-washing play a huge role in the spread of resistant infection. But these numbers were wildly out-of-sync with the ones I'd seen. While some European nations have made really admirable progress on hospital acquired infections (the Netherlands, for example, seems to have virtually eliminated MRSA through strict isolation procedures), others are as bad or worse.