My lede:

Hospital-associated infections annually kill an estimated 100,000 people and add $20 billion to the nation’s health care bill. The increasing prevalence of multidrug-resistant organisms, state infection reporting mandates and the looming threat of an influenza A(H1N1) pandemic have made the job of preventing infections and controlling their spread that much harder.

But amid the worst recession in decades, hospitals are cutting back wherever they can, and infection-control professionals report that their departments are not being spared.

The whole shebang.