Scheel O, Stormark M. National prevalence survey on hospital infections in Norway. Journal of Hospital Infection. 1999;41(4):331–335.

Recommended article from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Collaborative on Surgical Infection Prevention, which concluded in April 2003.

Wallace WC, Cinat M, Gornick WB, Lekawa ME, Wilson SE. Nosocomial infections in the surgical intensive care unit: A difference between trauma and surgical patients. American Surgeon. 1999;65(10):987–990.

Recommended article from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Collaborative on Surgical Infection Prevention, which concluded in April 2003.

Horan TC, Emori TG. Definitions of key terms used in the NNIS System. American Journal of Infection Control. 1997;25(2):112–116.

Recommended article from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Collaborative on Surgical Infection Prevention, which concluded in April 2003.

Horan TC, Culver DH, Gaynes RP, Jarvis WR, Edwards JR, Reid CR. Nosocomial infections in surgical patients in the United States, January 1986-June 1992. National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance (NNIS) System. Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. 1993;14(2):73–80.

Recommended article from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Collaborative on Surgical Infection Prevention, which concluded in April 2003.

Delgado-Rodriguez M, Sillero-Arenas M, Medina-Cuadros M, Martinez-Gallego G. Nosocomial infections in surgical patients: Comparison of two measures of intrinsic patient risk. Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. 1997;18(1):19–23.

Recommended article from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Collaborative on Surgical Infection Prevention, which concluded in April 2003.

Emori TG, Gaynes RP. An overview of nosocomial infections, including the role of the microbiology laboratory. Clinical Microbiology Reviews. 1993;6(4):428–442.

Recommended article from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Collaborative on Surgical Infection Prevention, which concluded in April 2003.

Leape LL, Lawthers AG, Brennan TA, Johnson WG. Preventing medical injury. Quality Review Bulletin. 1993;19(5):144–149.

Recommended article from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Collaborative on Surgical Infection Prevention, which concluded in April 2003.

Kohn LT, Corrigan JM, Donaldson MS, eds. (Committee on Quality of Health Care in America, Institute of Medicine)
Washington, DC, USA: National Academies Press; 1999

This report lays out a comprehensive strategy to reduce medical errors for government, industry, consumers, and health care providers, and it calls on the United States Congress to create a national patient safety center to develop the new tools and systems needed to address persistent problems. Each chapter of the report contains a reference list, allowing the reader to select additional material in specific areas of interest.

Nolan TW. System changes to improve patient safety. British Medical Journal. 2000;320:771-773.

The author contends that designers of systems of care can make them safer by attending to three tasks: designing the system to prevent errors; designing procedures to make errors visible when they do occur so that they may be intercepted; and designing procedures for mitigating the adverse effects of errors when they are not detected and intercepted.

Gerberding JL. Hospital-onset infections: a patient safety issue. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2002 Oct 15;137(8):665-670.

Hospital-onset infections, particularly those involving the urinary tract, lung, and bloodstream, are common and costly and cause substantial morbidity. This article analyzes the case of a 78-year-old man with lung cancer who died after developing hospital-onset pneumonia and urinary catheter-related infection during hospitalization for elective removal of a cerebellar metastasis.