Final answer:
Ignaz Semmelweis contributed to the reduction of hospital deaths by insisting on the disinfection of physicians' hands, which sharply decreased mortality rates from puerperal fever.
Step-by-step explanation:
The contribution made by Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis that drastically reduced deaths in hospitals was his insistence on the disinfection of physicians’ hands before they assisted with childbirth. In the mid-19th century, Semmelweis, a Hungarian obstetrician, noted a high mortality rate from puerperal fever among mothers who were attended by physicians who did not wash their hands, as compared to those attended by midwives. He observed that physicians often moved from performing autopsies directly to delivering babies, and based on these observations, Semmelweis hypothesized that puerperal fever was contagious and proposed that handwashing with chlorinated lime water could reduce its transmission. When this practice was implemented, the mortality rate in his hospital fell dramatically from 18% to 2%, proving the effectiveness of hand hygiene in preventing disease transmission within medical facilities. Unfortunately, despite this significant reduction in mortality, Semmelweis’s recommendations were initially met with resistance and skepticism from his peers, partly because the concept of disease-causing microbes was not yet widely understood or accepted.