The old saying is true: A hospital is no place for a sick person. In fact, deadly bacterial infections continue to plague some of the nation’s most well-respected medical centers, despite aggressive efforts to control them, a new report finds.

Clostridium difficile, also known as C. diff, contributes to nearly 29,000 deaths every year, according to a new analysis of thousands of hospitals by Consumer Reports.

That’s nearly as many deaths from influenza.

The bacteria can survive for weeks on a large variety of surfaces. Once those germs get into the intestinal tracts of people with compromised immune systems, they grow and make the patient even sicker.

The large majority of fatalities from C. diff have occurred in hospitals and other healthcare environments.

“Far too many patients are getting infected with dangerous bacteria in healthcare settings,” said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden.

About one-third of the 3,100 hospitals evaluated by Consumer Reports scored poorly for C. diff infection control. Nineteen of the country’s largest and most prestigious teaching hospitals drew failing grades.

Among them: Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, and Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

“Teaching hospitals are supposed to be places where we identify the best practices and put them to work,” said Lisa McGiffert, director of Consumer Reports’ Safe Patient Project. “But even they seem to be struggling against this infection.”

Only two large hospitals reported zero C. diff infections between October 2014 and September 2015: Maimonedes Medical Center in Brooklyn and Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach.

It seems like the infection would be easy enough to control when the first line of defense is soap, alcohol rub, gloves, disinfectants, and the proper use of antibiotics.

So why hasn’t it been so easy?

“Yes, the tools are simple, but they have to be deployed exactly the right way over and over and over again,” says Dr. Edward Chapnick, director of the Division of Infectious Disease at Maimonides. “And that’s not so easy, especially in big hospitals with hundreds of beds and lots of different people.”

Several hospitals defended their track record on C. diff when asked by Consumer Reports. They argued that teaching hospitals tend to see sicker patients and that many of their patients already have C. diff when they’re admitted.

Baylor University Medical Center spokesman Craig Civale says his hospital “routinely admits very complex patients with multiple conditions,” but that the hospital has developed new protocols to ensure that antibiotics are prescribed appropriately.

The hospital is now isolating any patients who appears to have signs or symptoms of C. diff.

The Cleveland Clinic, in a March 2016 statement, said the hospitals is “committed to continuous improvement in quality and safety.”

The best ways to prevent the spread of C. diff are for healthcare workers to wear gloves as often as possible and wash hands thoroughly and regularly.

But a 2014 University of Iowa study found fewer than one-third of healthcare workers in intensive care units always wash their hands. A Consumer Reports survey of 1,200 recently hospitalized people found that only half always saw their doctor or nurse wash their hands.

“Fatigue develops, just like with anything else,” says Chapnick from Maimonides.

“Screen-saver messages, email reminders, we’ve tried all of those things [as hand-washing reminders]. People start to not see them after a while. It’s not that they don’t care. It’s just that they’re human.”

Chapnick has found that face-to-face conversations with hospital staff about hand washing is what works best.

The CDC has protocols in place for tackling C. diff, but it lacks the authority to make them mandatory.

Among the CDC’s suggestions is the prevention of antibiotic overuse, which contributes to drug-resistant infections. But according to reports, only 39 percent of all hospitals have antibiotic stewardship programs.

So, what can you do if you or a loved one is at risk of developing a C. diff infection?

1. Make sure you really need any antibiotics prescribed. If your doctor prescribes an antibiotic, ask why.

2. Insist that your doctor, nurse, or healthcare provider wash his or her hands or wear gloves before examining you.

3. Be wary of heartburn drugs. They can increase the risk of C. diff infections taking hold in your stomach.

4. Ask about protective measures that are in place in the hospital. According to the CDC, hospitals should order a C. diff test for any patient who has diarrhea.