For years, I watched infectious disease consultants advise hospital staff to wash hands diligently to prevent patient spread of bacteria and viruses. Despite their reasonable advice, some healthcare professionals did not heed the warning.

Many hospital-acquired infections (known as nosocomial infections) have persisted at a lofty rate for years, leading to extended hospitalizations, added healthcare costs, complications and even death – about 100,000 per year.

In certain cases, insurance will not pay hospitals if they suspect a patient’s stay was prolonged by a preventable infection, such as a bladder infection from a urinary catheter, or at a post-surgical site.

A silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic will be greater awareness of bacterial and viral transmission and a more concerted effort by hospital personnel to use appropriate PPEs and wash their hands. We might see the rate of other hospital-acquired infections decrease, saving billions of dollars every year.

Infectious disease consultants will be happy, and the public will be safer, too.

Gene Uzawa Dorio, M.D., is a geriatric house-call physician who serves as president of the Los Angeles County Commission for Older Adults and Assemblyman to the California Senior Legislature. He has practiced in the Santa Clarita Valley for 32 years.