My lede:

A new study is the latest to document the high costs and deadly consequences of preventable nosocomial infections.

Researchers examined 69 million hospital discharges in 40 states from 1998 to 2006, looking at two conditions, sepsis and pneumonia, often caused by drug-resistant infections. Nosocomial sepsis and pneumonia kill 48,000 patients annually and cost $8.1 billion to treat, said the study, published in the Feb. 22 Archives of Internal Medicine.

The whole shebang.