Under the law, Medicare is mandated each year to punish the 25% of general care hospitals that have the highest rates of patient safety issues. The assessment is based on rates of infections, blood clots, sepsis cases, bedsores, hip fractures and other complications that occur in hospitals and might have been prevented. Morsa Images/Getty Images hide caption
The North American porcupine has a cute face, but it has upward of 30,000 menacing quills covering much of its body. The slow-moving herbivore uses them as a last-resort defense against predators. Lindsay Wildlife Experience hide caption
Each year, hundreds of hospitals lose 1 percent of their Medicare payments through the Hospital-Acquired Conditions Reduction Program. The penalties — now in their fourth year — were created by the Affordable Care Act to drive hospitals to improve the quality of their care. Maskot/Getty Images hide caption
C. diff infections, which rose for decades, are now falling, according to the CDC. David Phillips/Science Source hide caption
Nursing homes and hospitals need to work harder to keep water systems from being contaminated with bacteria that cause Legionnaires' disease, the CDC says. Getty Images hide caption
Wounds infected with antibiotic-resistant staph often heal, but the bacteria can remain inside a person's body and cause future infections. Michelle Kondrich for NPR hide caption
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles has been penalized in all three years since the creation of a Medicare program to reduce patient-safety issues in hospitals. FG/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images/Getty Images hide caption
Four days after Rory Staunton cut himself in gym class, he died from septic shock. Courtesy of Rory Staunton Foundation hide caption
Behind-the-scenes work to reduce injuries and infections in hospitals has paid off. Further improvements may be more challenging. iStockphoto hide caption
Ideally, the best place to care for someone ill with Ebola is at the end of a hall in a room with its own bathroom, anteroom and entrance, says Dr. Jack Ross of Hartford Hospital. Jeff Cohen/WNPR hide caption
Dorothea Handron suffered an infection after a surgeon unknowingly pierced her bowel during a hernia operation. She became so ill that doctors placed her in a medically induced coma for six weeks. Jim R. Bounds/AP Images for Kaiser Health News hide caption
That stethoscope may have more germs than you'd expect. A simple wipe with alcohol can solve the problem, but when's the last time you saw that? iStockphoto hide caption