Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology April 2014 V.35 N.4 P.333-335

Ebbing Lautenbach, MD, MPH, MSCE1 and Eli N. Perencevich, MD, MS2

1. Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2. Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, and Center for Comprehensive Access and Delivery Research and Evaluation, Iowa City Veterans Administration Health Care System, Iowa City, Iowa

Address correspondence to Ebbing Lautenbach, MD, MPH, MSCE, Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, 825 Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6021 (ebbing@mail.med.upenn.edu).

Approximately 10% of hospitalizations are complicated by a healthcare-associated infection, and up to 75% of these are due to organisms resistant to first-line antimicrobial therapy.

Furthermore, antimicrobial-resistant bacterial infections are associated with significant increases in morbidity and mortality and incur…