As hospital infections spread, so do medical-malpractice lawsuits

"...At a minimum, attorneys that represent hospitals should advise them to have policies on infection prevention, such as hand-hygiene policies..."

"...She suggested that attorneys advise hospitals to take stronger measures, such as penalizing those who violate hand-hygiene rules and screening incoming patients for MRSA. About 126,000 people are hospitalized with MRSA infections each year and about 5,000 die, the CDC reported..."

Hospitals have long had policies calling for medical personnel to keep their hands clean before and after seeing patients and for support staff to disinfect the facilities regularly. But historically those policies have not been as strictly enforced as they should have been, Manley said.

"...hospitals and doctors are more likely to be sued over infections if they don’t implement proven methods to prevent them..."

Yet another article raising the hands on the issue of hand hygiene in health care venues....Of course, 99.9% of hospitals are still looking at a 1996 manual from CDC that purportedly promotes alcohol gel sanitizers, despite the fact that CDC spokesperson Kathleen Stewart vehemently states that "CDC does not recommend alcohol-based gels..." leaving the door open to proactive administrators that understand the distinctions between the newer, non-alcohol, rinse free hand sanitizer products that are just as effective as the legacy products, but are non-irritating to the skin, non-flammable and non-toxic..