People visiting hospital for reasons that had nothing to do with the coronavirus often led to them contracting the disease - with more than 2,000 of them dying.
Data released by Kaiser Health News, a non-profit organization, details how there were more than 10,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 that began in hospitals in 2020.
The organization believes the true number of cases is in fact far higher.
Around 21 percent of the cases that started in hospitals between the months of April and September last year led to the deaths of more than 2,000 people.
During the first wave of the pandemic, patients who went into hospital to be treated for conditions unrelated to Covid were infected and died
At hospitals with high rates of covid spread, staff members were often alarmed by the lack of safety practices
Some say part of the blame lies with poor hospital infection control protocols and staff spreading the virus to one another, and then to patients.
Although staff were also separated depending on who they were treating and were instructed to social distance at all times from other staff members, often they would congregate in areas to use computers, access records and take breaks.
Some older hospitals were at a greater risk of outbreaks because of narrow corridors, small rooms and poor ventilation.
Other studies suggest moving patients between beds on wards to create space was another vector for infection.
Scientists in charge of stemming hospital outbreaks say hospital-acquired cases of Covid-19 'were a major problem' in the early days of the pandemic but say hospitals are 'absolutely safe' now.
Cindy Johnson holds a painting of her husband, Steven, a retired pharmacist who had survived colon cancer and took meticulous measures to avoid contracting covid-19. Steven died of covid in December 2020, and Cindy believes he contracted the virus at Blake Medical Center in Bradenton, Florida, where he was admitted for an infection in his hip
Steven Johnson, 66, was expecting to get an infection cut out of his hip at Blake Medical Center in Bradenton, Florida, in November 2020. His wife, Cindy Johnson, says he had tested negative for covid-19 two days before he was admitted. After 13 days in the hospital, he tested positive and died soon afterwards
One Florida woman, Cindy Johnson, thinks that her husband Steven became infected with coronavirus by a staff member at the Blake Medical Center in Bradenton, Florida in November 2020.
The retired pharmacist had gone into hospital to receive treatment for a flesh infection but ended up contracting Covid.
Steven had tested negative for Covid two days before he was admitted. After 13 days in the hospital, he tested positive. He died soon
