This story appeared first in the Sunday edition of the Wisconsin State Journal newspaper.
At least 17 patients at Meriter Hospital got urinary tract infections from catheters during a recent 21-month period, and 20 patients at UW Hospital had the same problem. Meriter?s rate of the infections was six times the national average, and UW Hospital?s rate was more than four times the average. At St. Mary?s Hospital, five patients got the infections, about average.