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A new American study in JAMA Internal Medicine has found decreasing hospital acquired infections (HAIs) will save lives and reduce the costs associated with treating infections each year.

According to the study, the costs associated with health care-linked infections is nearly $10 billion U.S. each year. Based on population numbers, the five HAIs mentioned in the study cost Ontario about $400 million a year. The study mentions that at least half of these infections are preventable.The Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU), the hospital division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) has been urging the provincial government to invest health care funding in decreasing HAIs at Ontario hospitals for the last decade.

Superbug rates in Ontario hospitals have not declined significantly. While the province's main strategy to reduce superbugs, hand-washing, has improved, OCHU President Michael Hurley says, "Clearly more needs to be done."

"Now we have the findings of an expansive medical study that shows HAI prevention also saves hospitals considerable costs associated with treating infections," Hurley says. "It would be good medicine and fiscally responsible for our provincial health minister to invest in the necessary system changes to decrease HAI rates."