Hospital Hygiene: Key Facts and Figures

Hospital-acquired infections are a burden for patients, families, and clinical staff. Numerous publications have reported figures on this topic. A selection of these is visualized in the following infographic.

Beyond the fact that a hospital-acquired infection should definitely be avoided for ethical reasons, it also becomes clear that a so-called nosocomial infection represents an economic burden for the hospital.

The guiding principle applies: “Prevention is cheaper than reaction.”

The following comparison with a lightning rod is apt: Installing a lightning rod on a building costs money. However, if you don’t install one and lightning strikes, restoring the building to its original condition is significantly more expensive than the lightning rod installation. This analogy can be applied to infection prevention.