[Prospects for controlling hospital infection and the new social forces for upholding healthcare].

This paper discusses hospital infections based on the methodological concept of concrete totality and the resulting explanatory model of social determination, as critical paths for putting such occurrences and the social intervention possibilities to control them into context. It assesses the prospects for control by considering the advances in knowledge and control programs and the post-constitutional Brazilian institutional setting. It concludes that the increasing intervention by the judiciary and the Public Prosecutor's office, regarding issues involving hospital infection and the existing difficulties for control, reflect the level of healthcare service qualification in Brazil. It suggests that such judicial intervention contributes to the democratization process of healthcare policies and adds to the efforts of society in general to uphold the right to healthcare. It considers that following up the conditions under which control takes place in each institution may reveal important information that can be taken as markers for the general quality of the services and care provided, thereby becoming an instrument for a broad joint effort by the Public Prosecutor's office and healthcare institutions along with citizen participation.