Hospital-acquired infection (nosocomial infection)

A hospital-acquired infection is one that arises during or after care, when it was neither present nor incubating at the start of treatment. French law has treated it separately since the law of March 4, 2002. Article L. 1142-1 of the Public Health Code makes the health facility strictly liable, unless it proves an external cause. A physician in private office practice answers only for fault. Courts very rarely accept the external cause defense: a germ carried by the patient does not clear the clinic. The About law of December 30, 2002, then split the burden. Above 25% permanent physical or mental impairment, or in case of death, ONIAM pays on behalf of national solidarity (Article L. 1142-1-1). On July 13, 2007, the Conseil d'État read this as a separate regime, triggered by the severity threshold alone. The facility then comes back into the file only through the office's recourse action, where fault is proven, and the Conseil d'État allows it even when the fault merely cost a chance of avoiding the infection (November 28, 2014). For the underwriter, the regime splits the risk in two. Below the threshold, frequency that is covered without any argument over fault. Above it, recourse exposure that turns on how well infection control is documented. National prevalence surveys put the rate at roughly one hospitalized patient in twenty.