You go to a hospital to get better, not to get sick. Yet every day, patients across Illinois develop new infections they did not have when they were admitted. Public-health data has long shown that on any given day roughly one in every 31 hospital patients has at least one health-care-associated infection. Many of these infections are an unavoidable risk of complex medical care. But many others are preventable, and when a preventable infection results from a hospital’s failure to follow accepted safety practices, it can be medical malpractice.
This guide explains what hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are, the most common types, the line between an unfortunate complication and negligence, how these cases are proven in Illinois, and what injured patients and families can do. It connects closely to our discussions of sepsis after surgery and the certificate of merit every Illinois malpractice case requires.
What is a hospital-acquired infection?
A hospital-acquired infection, also called a health-care-associated infection (HAI), is an infection a patient develops during the course of receiving medical care that was not present or incubating when they were admitted. These infections can arise in hospitals, surgical centers, dialysis facilities, and nursing homes. They are caused by bacteria, viruses, and fungi that spread through contaminated hands, instruments, catheters, ventilators, and surfaces, and they often strike patients whose immune systems are already weakened by illness or surgery.
HAIs are a serious public-health problem. They lengthen hospital stays, drive up medical costs, cause lasting harm, and, in the most severe cases, lead to sepsis and death. Because so many of them are traceable to lapses in basic infection-control practices, health-care regulators treat HAI rates as a key measure of hospital quality.
| Common HAI | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) | Contaminated central IV lines |
| Catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) | Improperly placed or maintained urinary catheters |
| Surgical site infection (SSI) | Contamination during or after surgery |
| Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) | Bacteria entering the lungs through a breathing tube |
| C. difficile (C. diff) | Often linked to antibiotic overuse and poor hygiene |
| MRSA and other resistant bacteria | Spread by contaminated hands, equipment, and surfaces |
The most common types of hospital-acquired infections
While infections can take many forms, several account for the majority of serious HAIs:
- Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) occur when bacteria enter the bloodstream through a central venous catheter. These are among the most dangerous HAIs because they deliver bacteria directly into the blood, and they are also among the most preventable with proper insertion and maintenance protocols.
- Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) develop from urinary catheters that are left in too long or not kept clean.
- Surgical site infections (SSIs) arise at or near a surgical incision, often from contamination in the operating room or inadequate post-operative wound care.
- Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) affects patients on breathing machines when bacteria reach the lungs.
- Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) causes severe intestinal illness and is frequently linked to antibiotic overuse and poor hand hygiene.
- Antibiotic-resistant organisms such as MRSA spread through contaminated hands, gloves, gowns, and equipment and are especially hard to treat.
Each of these has well-established prevention guidelines. When a hospital ignores those guidelines and a patient is harmed, the infection may reflect negligence rather than bad luck.
How hospitals are supposed to prevent infections
Modern infection control relies on evidence-based practices that, when followed consistently, prevent a large share of HAIs. Hospitals use standardized prevention bundles, groups of steps that must be performed together every time. A central-line bundle, for example, calls for strict hand hygiene, full sterile barriers during insertion, skin antisepsis, careful selection of the insertion site, and daily review of whether the line is still needed so it can be removed promptly. Similar bundles exist for urinary catheters, ventilators, and surgical care. Checklists, staff training, and monitoring are supposed to ensure these steps are not skipped. When a facility treats these protocols as optional, or lacks the staffing to follow them, infection rates climb, and patients are harmed by failures that were entirely preventable.
How infection rates are tracked and publicly reported
Hospitals are not left to grade themselves in secret. Many report infection data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through the National Healthcare Safety Network, and infection metrics feed into public quality-reporting programs. That means a hospital’s performance on infections like CLABSIs, CAUTIs, and surgical site infections is often measurable and comparable. In litigation, this data, along with the facility’s own internal infection-control records, can help show whether a hospital’s practices fell short of what its peers achieve. A facility with persistently high infection rates and a documented failure to act on them presents a very different picture than one with strong protocols and an isolated event.
When is a hospital-acquired infection malpractice?
This is the central question, and the answer is nuanced. Not every infection is malpractice. Even with excellent care, some patients, particularly those who are very ill, elderly, or immunocompromised, will develop infections. The law does not make a hospital an insurer against every bad outcome.
An infection crosses the line into malpractice when it results from a failure to meet the accepted standard of care, and that failure causes the patient harm. In other words, the question is not simply whether an infection occurred, but whether the providers did what reasonably careful providers would have done to prevent and respond to it. Malpractice may exist where the hospital or its staff:
- Failed to follow hand-hygiene protocols, the single most important infection-control measure;
- Used improperly sterilized instruments or reused single-use devices;
- Neglected central-line or catheter care, such as leaving a line in longer than necessary or failing to keep it clean;
- Failed to isolate a contagious patient or to use appropriate protective equipment;
- Ignored early signs of infection such as fever, redness, or elevated white-cell counts; or
- Delayed diagnosis and treatment, allowing a localized infection to progress to sepsis.
The key distinction is preventability. A hospital is not automatically liable because a patient got an infection. It may be liable when the infection resulted from a failure to follow the safety practices that reasonably careful providers use, and that failure harmed the patient.
How preventable infections happen
Infection control is not complicated in theory, but it requires discipline at every step. Hand hygiene, proper sterilization, careful insertion and prompt removal of catheters and central lines, environmental cleaning, appropriate use of antibiotics, and isolation of contagious patients are all well-established practices. Breakdowns happen when facilities are understaffed, when protocols are rushed, when equipment is not properly cleaned, or when warning signs are missed. In nursing homes, chronic understaffing and inadequate training make infection-control lapses especially common, and vulnerable residents pay the price.
Antibiotic resistance and stewardship
The overuse of antibiotics has produced dangerous resistant organisms such as MRSA and contributed to the spread of C. diff. Hospitals are expected to practice antibiotic stewardship, using these drugs carefully and only when appropriate, to slow resistance and protect patients. When a facility overuses antibiotics or fails to isolate patients carrying resistant organisms, it can put others at risk. Resistant infections are harder to treat, more likely to cause serious harm, and more likely to lead to prolonged hospitalization, which is one reason they figure prominently in serious HAI cases.
Why surgical site infections deserve special attention
Surgical site infections are among the most common and costly HAIs, and many are preventable through proper pre-operative skin preparation, sterile technique, appropriate timing of antibiotics, and careful post-operative wound care. When an SSI develops, the questions include whether the operating room and instruments were properly sterilized, whether the surgical team followed sterile procedure, whether prophylactic antibiotics were given correctly, and whether the wound was monitored and treated appropriately afterward. A deep surgical infection can require additional operations, prolonged antibiotic therapy, and lengthy recovery, turning a routine procedure into a life-altering ordeal.
The dangerous progression to sepsis
One reason HAIs are so serious is that an untreated or under-treated infection can progress to sepsis, the body’s extreme, life-threatening response to infection. Sepsis can cause organ failure, amputation, and death, and it develops quickly. When providers fail to recognize and treat the early signs of infection, a problem that could have been controlled can become catastrophic. We discuss this progression in more detail in our article on sepsis after surgery and when it may be malpractice, and in our overview of the three stages of sepsis.
Proving a hospital-acquired infection malpractice case in Illinois
Like any medical-malpractice claim, an HAI case in Illinois requires proving four elements:
- Duty: the hospital and its providers owed the patient a duty to provide care meeting the accepted standard;
- Breach: they failed to meet that standard, for example by ignoring infection-control protocols;
- Causation: that failure caused the infection or allowed it to worsen; and
- Damages: the patient suffered real harm as a result.
Causation is often the hardest element in HAI cases, because hospitals frequently argue that the infection was an unavoidable complication rather than the result of negligence. Overcoming that defense requires careful analysis of the records, infection-control policies, staffing, and the timeline, along with credible medical experts who can explain how proper care would have prevented the harm.
The certificate-of-merit requirement
Because an HAI claim is a medical-malpractice (healing-art) claim, Illinois requires a certificate of merit before the case can proceed. That means a qualified health professional must review the care and confirm in writing that there is a reasonable and meritorious basis for the claim, and an attorney affidavit must accompany the complaint. As we explain in our guide to the Illinois certificate of merit, getting this threshold step right is essential, because a missing or defective certificate can lead to dismissal regardless of how strong the underlying claim is.
Who can be held liable?
Depending on the facts, several parties may share responsibility for a preventable infection:
- The hospital or facility, for systemic failures such as understaffing, poor cleaning, or inadequate infection-control policies;
- Physicians, for failing to diagnose or treat an infection promptly;
- Nurses and other staff, for lapses in hygiene, catheter care, or monitoring; and
- Nursing homes and long-term-care facilities, where infection-control failures are a frequent form of neglect.
Identifying every responsible party matters, because it can determine the insurance coverage available to compensate a seriously injured patient.
The role of understaffing
Behind many infection-control failures is a simple, preventable cause: not enough trained staff. When nurses and aides are stretched across too many patients, the small but essential steps of infection prevention, hand hygiene between every patient, timely catheter removal, careful wound care, and prompt response to early warning signs, are the first things to slip. Chronic understaffing is a recurring theme in both hospital and nursing-home infection cases, and evidence of inadequate staffing can be an important part of proving that a facility failed to provide reasonably safe care.
Hospital-acquired infections in nursing homes
Nursing-home residents are especially vulnerable to infections because of age, underlying conditions, and close communal living. Federal and state regulations require long-term-care facilities to maintain infection-prevention and control programs, yet understaffing and inadequate training routinely undermine them. When a facility fails to follow basic infection-control practices, and a resident develops a serious infection, pressure ulcer that becomes infected, urinary tract infection, or sepsis, the failure may amount to neglect as well as malpractice. Families who see a loved one decline rapidly from infection in a nursing home should ask hard questions about the facility’s practices.
What damages can an injured patient recover?
A patient harmed by a preventable hospital-acquired infection may be entitled to recover for additional medical expenses caused by the infection, the cost of extended treatment and future care, lost wages and lost earning capacity, pain and suffering, disability and disfigurement, and loss of a normal life. When an infection leads to death, the family may pursue a wrongful-death claim under the Illinois Wrongful Death Act for their loss. The value of these claims depends on the severity of the harm, the strength of the causation evidence, and the degree to which the infection was preventable.
What to do if you suspect a preventable infection
If you or a loved one developed a serious infection during or shortly after hospital care, a few steps can protect your health and your rights:
- Get appropriate medical treatment for the infection right away; your health is the priority.
- Request the complete medical records, including notes on the infection, cultures, and treatment.
- Write down the timeline, when symptoms started, what you were told, and how providers responded.
- Do not sign broad releases from the facility or its insurer before speaking with a lawyer.
- Consult an experienced malpractice attorney promptly, because the certificate-of-merit process and the statute of limitations both take time.
How Phillips Law Offices handles infection and malpractice cases
At Phillips Law Offices, we investigate whether a hospital-acquired infection resulted from preventable failures in care. We obtain and analyze the medical records, infection-control policies, and staffing information, work with qualified medical experts, and handle the certificate-of-merit requirement properly from the start. We have represented injured patients and families in Chicago since 1945, and we take these cases on a contingency-fee basis, so you pay nothing unless we recover for you. Learn more on our Illinois medical-malpractice page.
Frequently asked questions
Is every hospital infection considered malpractice?
No. Some infections occur even with excellent care, especially in very ill or immunocompromised patients. An infection is malpractice only when it results from a failure to meet the accepted standard of care and that failure harms the patient.
How do I know if my infection was preventable?
That usually requires a medical review of the records and the facility’s infection-control practices. Signs that raise concern include lapses in hygiene or sterilization, delayed diagnosis, and failure to remove or care for catheters and central lines properly.
What are the most common hospital-acquired infections?
They include central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, surgical site infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia, C. diff, and antibiotic-resistant organisms such as MRSA.
Can I sue a nursing home for an infection?
Yes, if the infection resulted from the facility’s failure to follow required infection-control practices. Nursing-home infection cases can involve both malpractice and neglect theories.
Do I need a certificate of merit for an infection case?
Yes. Because it is a medical-malpractice claim, Illinois requires a certificate of merit confirming the claim has a reasonable and meritorious basis. See our certificate-of-merit guide for details.
Is a hospital’s infection-rate data available?
Often, yes. Hospitals report many infections to national databases, and infection metrics feed public quality-reporting programs. That data, plus the facility’s internal records, can help show whether care fell short.
What if the infection led to sepsis or death?
Those are among the most serious outcomes. When a preventable infection progresses to sepsis, causing organ damage or death, the potential damages and the importance of prompt investigation both increase significantly.
How long do I have to file a claim in Illinois?
Generally two years from when you knew or should have known of the injury, subject to an overall repose period and special rules for minors. Because these cases take time to develop, you should consult a lawyer promptly.
Talk to a Chicago medical-malpractice lawyer
If you or a loved one suffered a serious infection that you believe could have been prevented, you deserve answers. Call (312) 346-4262 for a free, confidential consultation with Phillips Law Offices, or reach out through our website, and we will review the care, obtain the records, and explain your options at no cost.
This article is provided for general informational purposes and is not legal advice. Every case is different; for advice about your specific situation, speak with a licensed attorney.
