NEW YORK, NY August 03, 2007 —New Jersey lawmakers are hoping a new healthcare regulation will reduce the number of infections patients contract in hospitals. WNYC’s Fred Mogul has more.

REPORTER: The American hospital setting accounts for an estimated 1.7 million infections and almost 100,000 deaths each year. Today, Governor Corzine signed a law requiring hospitals to implement infection prevention programs.

REPORTER: The regulation also requires hospitals report to state health authorities cases of a particularly widespread drug-resistant bacterium called MRSA. New Jersey becomes one of the first states to target MRSA specifically.

REPORTER: Together with New York, it was already one of the approximately 1/3 of states that gather information from hospitals about infection rates. For WNYC, I’m Fred Mogul.