Hospital-acquired infections cause substantial morbidity in inpatient settings. On the basis of a 1-day point-prevalence survey, CDC investigators report the burden and types of health care–associated infection in 183 hospitals across 10 geographically diverse states. Elimination of health care–associated infections is a priority of the Department of Health and Human Services. 1 Considerable success in prevention has been reported for some infections, particularly central-catheter–associated bloodstream infections. 2 – 5 Continued improvements in patient safety depend on maintaining a comprehensive understanding of the epidemiology of health care–associated infections. Currently, no single U.S. surveillance system can provide estimates of the burden of all types of such infections across acute care patient populations. The most recent estimate produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and published in 2007 — 1.7 million health care–associated infections per year — relied . . .