A study released in JAMA this week found that half of ICU patients worldwide have infections. Check out the Reuters and Health Day articles for more in-depth coverage.

As I’m sure many of you know, last night President Obama and ABC News hosted a discussion on the current state of health care in America. That reform is needed was universally supported. Debate, for the most part, centered on how much of a role government should play in delivery of care.

The current recession has been one of the worst economic slumps in recent memory, and hospitals have been not been immune from the slump. Like many businesses today, hospitals have been cutting fixed costs as deeply as they can, and one of the casualties of this cost cutting is infection control, says a recent study from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

Michael Bennett and his father Mark Bennett were an exceptionally close father and son. Mark was a decorated WWII combat veteran, former actor and stockbroker, who lived near his family in Baltimore. He spent years enjoying the company of his son and five grandchildren, but in February of 2004 the robustly viable senior developed a flu virus. Worried that the flu was developing into pneumonia, Michael took his father to the hospital, where he showed immediate improvement – they expected a short hospital stay.