I don't mean to go off on a rant here, but ...
... why is it that the place you go when you are most unwell is the place where you are highly likely to pick up some extra infections along the way? Chicago's various medical centers have garnered national recognition of late for their high rates of infections -- and a quick read would seem to imply that it's about a zero tolerance regarding non-adherence to rigorous policies and about changing the culture of politics in the business to allow nurses to be empowered to speak up.
And, look, I want to be a realist. I recognize we've come far from the days of blood-letting and hacksaw amputating and whiskey-as-medicine ingesting (did I mention I recently caught up on HBO's John Adams?). And I certainly don't want hospitals to slide further down the continuum between "Hippocratic healers" and "lawsuit factories" (much like newspapers slipped past the point of no return between "journalism" and "advertising" in my lifetime), but I do want there to be the highest standards of accountability with the professionals involved during a hospital visit to know that every best effort was made to avoid killing me while they were busy healing me.
I grew up in a one-hospital town (unless you were really bad, and then you were moved up to the Hershey med center) and I'm pretty sure if I end up in a hospital in Chicago it's going to be wherever my doctor's insurance rules and regulations tell him to send me -- but to the extent that I can forum shop, let it be known I want to go somewhere where I'll have a fighting chance!
2010 HOSPITAL INFECTION RATE TRIBUNE ARTICLE:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/chi-100516hospital-infections,0,1569833.story
AND WHAT SOME PLACES ARE DOING ABOUT IT:
http://blogs.hcpro.com/osha/2010/05/nine-hospitals-share-their-approach-to-infection-prevention-improvement/?utm_source=icwm&utm_medium=eNL&utm_campaign=20100519
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