New technologies tend to dominate headlines in modern medicine, but infection-control experts warn that basic, overlooked safeguards are increasingly becoming weak links in patient safety — contributing to the stubbornly high rate of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) in the United States.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 31 hospital patients on any given day has at least one HAI. Nearly 1.7 million patients develop these infections annually, and 100,000 die in hospitals as a result. The financial toll is staggering: HAIs cost the health care system between $28 billion and $45 billion annually, according to research funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research.

Now, infection-control specialists say small, inexpensive interventions — such as ro

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