What is a nosocomial infection?
Nosocomial infection is another word for hospital-acquired infection. This means that an infection has developed within the hospital. This term is used as a measure of quality of care provided by the hospital. In addition to quality, other factors are influential, such as age, the nature of the condition being treated and the procedures performed. Diseases that are in the incubation period during hospitalization should not be labeled as hospital-acquired infections. When infections develop in the hospital after 48 hours after entry, they do qualify as being hospital-acquired. Resistant bacteria caused by too much antibiotic use play a very large role in contracting a hospital infection. Some examples are: Staphylococcus aureus, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Candida albicans (not bacteria but yeast), Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Clostridium difficile, Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE)