For the last several years, the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) has collected detailed data about the hospital infection rate at Pennsylvania hospitals, and releases a report of this information to the public. Below are some of the key statistics from the 2006 report.

It's important to note that differences in survival rate, length of stay and hospital charges could be affected by factors urelated to hospital infections. Still, the apparent impact of hospital infections is striking:

• In 2006, Pennsylvania hospitals reported that 30,237 patients contracted an infection during their hospitalization, a rate of 19.2 per 1,000 patients.
• Patients with hospital infections died at a rate nearly six times that of uninfected patients (12.3 percent compared to 2.1 percent).
• The average length of stay for patients with a hospital infection was 19.3 days, while the average length of stay for patients without a hospital infection was 4.4 days.
• The average total hospital charge for patients with a hospital infection was more than five times that of patients without infections ($175,964 as compared to $33,260).
• The average total commercial insurance payment for an admission with a hospital infection was $51,096, while the average total payment for a case without one was $9,181.

Find out what you can do to protect yourself from getting a hospital infection during your stay.

Review hospital care to find information about infection rates at different hospitals in Pennsylvania.