--- title: CDC: U.S. Hospitals Get Better at Preventing Infections description: Progress in combatting a worldwide problem canonical: https://time.com/3667737/hospital-infections/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-14T19:43:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T03:34:37.506Z article:section: Health og:title: U.S. Hospitals Get Better at Preventing Infections og:description: Progress in combatting a worldwide problem. og:url: https://time.com/3667737/hospital-infections/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt170c9d0097e6a95e/698779e3524fc0f08adebe74/hospital-bed.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5200 og:image:height: 2925 og:image:alt: Empty hospital bed on hospital ward og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.S. Hospitals Get Better at Preventing Infections twitter:description: Progress in combatting a worldwide problem. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt170c9d0097e6a95e/698779e3524fc0f08adebe74/hospital-bed.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # U.S. Hospitals Get Better at Preventing Infections by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jan 14, 2015 7:43 PM UTC  Empty hospital bed on hospital ward Empty hospital bed on hospital wardPhil Fisk—Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jan 14, 2015 7:43 PM UTC Hospitals in the United States have made progress in lowering the rates of infections patients get while they are there, [according to a new report](http://www.cdc.gov/hai/progress-report/index.html). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Wednesday showed that hospitals have cut down on infections caused by medical mistakes and bacteria. Between 2008 and 2013, there’s been a 46% decrease in bloodstream infections caused by germs getting into the blood when tubes are inserted into veins incorrectly. During the same period, hospitals cut surgical site infections by 19%, and catheter-associated urinary tract infections by 6%. “Hospitals have made real progress to reduce some types of healthcare-associated infections—it can be done,” CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden said in a statement. “The key is for every hospital to have rigorous infection control programs to protect patients and healthcare workers, and for health care facilities and others to work together to reduce the many types of infections that haven’t decreased enough.” The data come from the [National Healthcare Safety Network](http://www.cdc.gov/nhsn) (NHSN), which tracks infections nationwide from over 14,500 health care facilities in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3667737/hospital-infections/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3667737/hospital-infections/"},"headline":"U.S. Hospitals Get Better at Preventing Infections","datePublished":"2015-01-14T19:43:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:34:37.506Z","description":"Progress in combatting a worldwide problem","url":"https://time.com/3667737/hospital-infections/","keywords":["Infectious Disease","hospitals","CDC","Bacteria","mrsa","infection"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt170c9d0097e6a95e/698779e3524fc0f08adebe74/hospital-bed.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt170c9d0097e6a95e/698779e3524fc0f08adebe74/hospital-bed.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Empty hospital bed on hospital ward","caption":"Empty hospital bed on hospital ward","creditText":"Phil Fisk—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/infectious-disease/","name":"Infectious Disease"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3667737/hospital-infections/","name":"U.S. Hospitals Get Better at Preventing Infections"}}]}] ```