While the exorbitant costs of health care associated infections (HAIs) have been repeatedly cited as a prime reason for prevention — second only to the higher calling of patient safety — an inconvenient truth was recently revealed by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Looking at central line related bloodstream infections — which kill some 28,000 patients annually — they found a disturbing disincentive to prevent CLABSIs at the very heart of the health care system — profit.